NFL players took to Twitter on Sunday in a coordinated effort to urge the NFL to listen to its experts’ guidelines on safely opening training camps amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Many of the players used the hashtag #WeWantToPlay to accompany their tweets.
NFL Players Association president JC Tretter tweeted: “What you are seeing today is our guys standing up for each other and for the work their union leadership has done to keep everyone as safe as possible. The NFL needs to listen to our union and adopt the experts’ recommendations #wewanttoplay”
The size of the risk would depend on the size of his contract. Because the more guaranteed money it contains, the more punitive it could be in regard to the cap for the team to move on should he fall out of line.
It would be one thing if Brown were available on the cheap. In that scenario, maybe the Seahawks could live with certain parts of his past — the frozen feet and uncertified helmet debacles, going AWOL and confronting his general manager — knowing they’d have an all-world talent at a bargain price and could painlessly cut ties at the first sign of trouble. The hope would be that Brown realizes he is on a short leash and acts accordingly.
But even then, there are the other alleged parts of Brown’s past. It’s hard to imagine an organization that dealt with the fallout from the Clark pick signing a player who stands accused of sexual assault.
The Seahawks considered Brown when he was released by the Raiders, then passed on him two weeks later after he was let go by the New England Patriots.
Seattle’s approach with Tramaine Brock in 2017 might be instructive in this case. The team kept a close eye on the cornerback for months that offseason and only signed him once his charge of domestic violence was dropped. The woman later said through her attorney that the altercation in question was verbal.
It might take a similar turn with Brown for the Seahawks’ interest in him to go any further. Unless that happens, don’t hold your breath on seeing him catch passes from Wilson that count.
Manchester City’s two-year European ban was overturned on Monday, but it wasn’t because they proved themselves innocent on all counts of financial misconduct. Rather, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) found that UEFA failed to follow its own guidelines in levying the suspension to begin with.
“Prosecution is barred after five years for all breaches of the UEFA club licensing and FFP (Financial Fair Play) regulations,” a critical part of UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) handbook states.
Was digging up cases dating back to 2014 an inexcusable oversight on the part of some sloppy lawyers at the CFCB’s adjudicatory chamber? Was UEFA arrogant to assume it could bend its own rules without being challenged? Or was it, as some City fans would have you believe, part of UEFA’s unyielding agenda against the side from the old industrial wastelands of east Manchester?
Many questions will be cleared up in the coming days when the CAS releases its full findings from its base in Lausanne, Switzerland, but one thing is for certain: The rich, ambitious, and nitwitted in European football will now be tempted to overspend and perhaps deliberately shun FFP regulations.
Owen Humphreys – PA Images / PA Images / Getty
The Saudi Arabian-led consortium seeking to take over Newcastle United, for example, will back itself to hire a skilled team of lawyers who can pick holes in UEFA’s statutes should the Magpies be found to have spent beyond their means over the next few years. By foolishly disregarding its own five-year rule when trying to block Manchester City from the Champions League, UEFA showed that – in this case, at least – its courtroom clout is pretty feeble. UEFA’s embarrassing loss serves as an open invitation for other clubs to try to sidestep FFP.
City’s “obstruction of the investigations,” as the CAS described in Monday’s media release, was an indication of guilt. The club insisted it was innocent yet denied UEFA access to the evidence that could apparently prove this. The door was shut in UEFA’s face.
But City still won, escaping with just a €10-million fine for refusing to comply with UEFA’s probe. That’s nearly identical to what they paid in 2015 for Patrick Roberts, who has never started a league match for City. For this club, €10 million is the spare change under the sofa cushions.
On the surface, letting Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, and the rest of Manchester City’s superstars in the Champions League for the next two years doesn’t seem a terrible punishment for UEFA. City have established themselves as one of the most entertaining teams since the Abu Dhabi United Group took over the club in 2008. Pep Guardiola’s attacking philosophy is a boon for television audiences.
And that is vital for UEFA right now. Some argue the chief reason behind establishing FFP in 2011 was to protect its elite, to only allow the wealthy to spend. Whether the governing body likes it or not, City are part of that elite. The income gained from City’s participation in the Champions League – over that of say, Leicester City or Sheffield United – is more important than ever when the coronavirus could cause a £1-billion shortfall for Premier League clubs and has worsened the crippling losses at teams like Barcelona. There isn’t as much money sloshing around in European football amid the pandemic.
OLI SCARFF / AFP / Getty
“We follow the UEFA rules. They dictate what we have to do, and we do it,” a feisty Guardiola told reporters on Tuesday, according to The Athletic’s Sam Lee. “People have to understand right now that we are here to try to compete on the pitch and at the same level as the elite clubs in the Premier League but in Europe too. We can be here.”
Monday’s judgment undoubtedly strikes a heavy blow to FFP. UEFA’s financial small print was already set aside during the pandemic, but the organization insists FFP isn’t dead. European football’s administrative body and the European Club Association “remain committed to its principles,” reads UEFA’s statement on the CAS vanquishing City’s ban.
In some ways, FFP works. Europe’s top-flight clubs combined for €5 billion in losses in the three years preceding the implementation of FFP; then, a report for the financial year of 2018 showed the continent’s leading outfits had made a collective profit in back-to-back years.
But City showed there are gaps to be exploited. For UEFA to protect itself against further humiliation in the future, there needs to be more stringent guidelines – perhaps a continent-wide salary cap – otherwise, this won’t be the last time it’s trampled by one of the clubs under its umbrella.
The Players Coalition is calling on Congress to pass a bill addressing education inequality that has been highlighted and expanded by the coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter, the players write that without Congressional action, education inequality for prekindergarten through high school students is “likely to be compounded in the coming year and beyond as state and local budgets deteriorate because of increased state and local COVID-related costs and steeply declining revenues due to COVID-related economic disruption.”
The players promoted a pair of bills, one passed by the House of Representatives in May and one proposed in the Senate in late June, that would provide billions of dollars in education funding.
Among the provisions the players are seeking in an education package are significant additional funding for elementary and secondary education, continued legal protections for marginalized students and addressing digital access for students.
COVID-19 exacerbated systemic problems in our schools. Absent significant Congressional action, education inequities are likely to continue growing. Today, we wrote to Senate leadership urging them to pass a COVID-19 relief package with crucial education provisions for our youth. pic.twitter.com/eqUYswaaoy
— PlayersCoalition (@playercoalition) July 17, 2020
The Players Coalition tweeted a copy of the letter Friday morning. It is addressed to Sens. Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer and signed by nearly 200 current and former professional athletes.
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“As Players Coalition members, we understand the importance of teamwork and never giving up — especially when prospects are bleak,” the players wrote. “We urge the Senate to work with the House to team up to enact these provisions, because giving up is not an option for our children of color and low-income children, or the future of our nation.”
McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is poised to release the Republicans’ $1 trillion coronavirus relief package as soon as next week. That plan is a counteroffer to the sweeping $3 trillion proposal that House Democrats approved in May, before the latest spike in coronavirus cases and hot spots.
The Players Coalition was founded in 2017. Its stated goal is “making an impact on social justice and racial equality at the federal, state and local levels through advocacy, awareness, education, and allocation of resources.”
In June, the Players Coalition gathered more than 1,400 signatures for a letter to Congress supporting a bill to end qualified immunity, which makes it difficult to sue police officers for brutality.
