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The NFL was forced to open their doors as Judge Susan Nelson ruled twice that their lock out of the players was out of order. Making billions of dollars in profits was not enough for the greedy owners so they decided to plot and plan to take it away from the players by opting out of their labor deal and then tried to use billions of network money to wait out the players. Doesn't it remind you of typical tea party corporate and political behavior? All unions are being attacked from all sides. Roger Goodell, who was hired by the owners to be their Commissioner has also been used as a very vocal tool to attack the players instead of remaining an impartial voice. Here's his WSJ op-ed which spins the facts and attacks the players union.

Rather than address the challenge of improving the collective-bargaining agreement for the benefit of the game, the union-financed lawsuit attacks virtually every aspect of the current system including the draft, the salary cap and free-agency rules, which collectively have been responsible for the quality and popularity of the game for nearly two decades. A union victory threatens to overturn the carefully constructed system of competitive balance that makes NFL games and championship races so unpredictable and exciting.

The deal that the owners opted out of was working fine for both sides as football is more popular and profitable than ever, but suddenly it's the union that wants to destroy football.

Nate Jackson responded to Goodell on Dead Spin:

This PR push by the NFL — a response to DeMaurice Smith's recent public attempts to shed light on what a typical career is like for an NFL athlete — is confusing to a former player like me: confusing, disingenuous, and ignorant. Confusing because it implies that the average NFL career, the average professional football existence, is comparable to the anomalous careers of Pro Bowlers and first-round draft picks. Disingenuous because it comes at a time when Goodell purports to care profoundly about the health of his players. Ignorant because it dismisses the thousands of athletes who sacrifice their minds and their bodies for a sport that keeps them hanging by a thread for years, shuffling them in and out of training camps and practice squads and never paying them full value for their services.

In other labor disputes, the commissioner has usually not been involved. During the lock out, players didn't hide their feelings about him. Good for the fans to recognize the hackery of Goodell and when he took the stage to start the draft he was booed by the Radio City crowd.

You know, people aren't logical, or fair, or even sane most of the time. I rest my case: Dan Snyder? The most ethnically insensitive man in the NFL? (And God knows, that's a high bar.) From Above The Bar:

This is rich. The owner of the Washington R******s, Dan Snyder, has sued the Washington City Paper for a column he claims defamed him and used anti-Semitic imagery. That’s right, the man who has famously defended his right to name an entire football team after an ethnic slur is playing the ethnic card because a columnist made fun of him.

The kicker is that on top of this amazing execution of rank hypocrisy, Snyder manages to insult all Jews who have actually dealt with anti-Semitism by coming up with an ethnic offense where none existed. The columnist wasn’t making Jewish jokes or playing off of Jewish stereotypes. He was calling Dan Snyder a terrible owner and a shady dude. Saying he was a victim of anti-Semitism degrades the term and make this entire lawsuit look like the petulant reaction of a narcissistic millionaire.As Dennis Green might say: Daniel Snyder is who we thought he was….

Here are the basics of the lawsuit, from ESPN:

Snyder filed the lawsuit against the weekly paper and its parent company, Atalaya Capital management LP, in New York State Supreme Court on Wednesday. The suit seeks at least $1 million in damages for each of the two causes of action, plus punitive damages.

The cover story entitled “The Crazy R******s Fan’s Guide to Dan Snyder,” has an altered photo of the owner with horns and a beard drawn in pen. The suit claims the weekly newspaper used “lies, half-truths, innuendo and anti-Semitic imagery to smear, malign, defame and slander” Snyder.

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This is the 'anti-Semitic' drawing Dan Snyder's so upset about.

The hammer came down from the NFL on Big Ben.

The bad behavior of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger resulted Wednesday in a six-game suspension by the NFL and reportedly has triggered what once would have been unthinkable: The Steelers are testing the market to trade him.

According to an ESPN report, Pittsburgh has been contacting teams selecting in the top 10 of this year's draft, which begins at 4:30 p.m. PDT today, to gauge interest in the two-time Super Bowl winner.

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What's clear is the league and the Steelers have all but run out of patience with Roethlisberger, who last year faced similar accusations by a woman in Nevada. That case also did not bring criminal charges. Since then, reports have swirled that there's a pattern of bad off-field behavior by the quarterback, once among the NFL's most popular players.

Roethlisberger will be suspended without pay for six games, losing $2.8 million in salary, for violating the league's personal-conduct policy, and he must undergo a "comprehensive behavioral evaluation by medical professionals," the NFL said.

Good riddance. He's lucky that's all that happened. I keep hearing from his defenders that the only side of the story we're hearing is from the young woman, but there's plenty of space available in the newspapers and online for Ben to tell us his side of the story. ESPN would be drooling to get him on air for an interview. Why the silence if Ben is being so wronged and there's nothing to what happened?

On another note, the NFL draft is here and yes, I am a draft junkie when it actually takes place. The NFL and ESPN are looking to line their pocket with more gold and have turned it into a three day extravaganza. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are all being milked for everything they are worth---so for all you draftniks, put on your face paint or grab the nearest eye black---Tim Tebow Bible Verses. How interesting that the NCAA and the NFL outlawed the use of them after Tebow left college. It does look like these sports villagers have been reading my blog because I made this claim a long time ago.

Schuh denied that the rules committee wanted to ban the eye-black writing because they were worried about the kind of messages some players might try to use, such as someone protesting Tebow's Christian messages with a Muslim phrase, for example.

No Muslim phrases in the NCAA. I'm shocked Focus on Family of Falwell's people haven't tried to market the Christian Eye Black yet. Now, get your popcorn, boo the Jets draft pick...

...and hope the number 1 pick your team makes doesn't wind up to be Ryan Leaf.

By the way, he just got 10 years' probation.

Former NFL quarterback Ryan Leaf has agreed to plead guilty in his Texas drug and burglary case in exchange for 10 years of probation, attorneys in the case said Thursday.

Leaf's attorney, Bill Kelly, said his client has agreed to plead guilty to seven counts of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud and one count of delivery of a simulated controlled substance. Leaf would be on probation for 10 years and a burglary charge would be dropped.

That's what I'm talking about.

Matt Taibbi has written a guide which decodes the entire draft process. All NFL GM's should read it immediately.

For years I’ve been obsessed with what is surely the greatest spectacle in all of sports: the NFL draft. Now I’ve finally figured out how to put my fixation to good use. Listen up, GMs. By Matt Taibbi

I probably know more about the nfl draft than I do about any other single thing in life. I have first cousins whose names I can’t remember, and I forget the contents of pretty much every book I read the moment I’m finished. But for some mysterious and no doubt deeply psychotic reason, I have a virtually limitless ability to remember details about football’s annual meat market. I can recall what kind of car Seattle Seahawks pick Jerramy Stevens crashed into an old-folks home in his Washington Huskies days (a red Toyota pickup) or what a lumbering Auburn tackle named King Dunlap “ran” in his pre-draft 40 two years ago (a 5.28, I’m pretty sure). People in my parents’ generation remember where they were when Kennedy got shot; I’ll remember where I was when Andre Smith first bared his bouncing man-titties during a pro-day workout...read on.

He's right about the pot thing. The Giants drafted Mario Manningham on the 3rd round because he admitted to smoking some weed before the NFL meat market, combine and slid into the Giants lap.

Limbaugh will be able to practice his perfect, conservative whine.

Rush Limbaugh is expected to be dropped from a group bidding to buy the St. Louis Rams, according to three NFL sources.

Dave Checketts, chairman of the NHL's St. Louis Blues and the point man in the Limbaugh group attempting to buy the Rams, realizes he must remove the controversial conservative radio host from his potential role as a minority member in the group in order to get approval from other NFL owners, the sources said.

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Ultimately, the sources said, Checketts must reconfigure his group and find another investor to make his bid more viable.

Exactly when Limbaugh will be dropped is uncertain, though some familiar with the situation said it could be within the next week. It is unclear if the two sides even have spoken.

A Limbaugh spokesman told ESPN that Limbaugh would have no comment on Wedneday. Earlier, on his syndicated radio show, Limbaugh was defiant, holding on to hope that he still could be part of the ownership group that buys the Rams.

"I'm not even thinking of exiting," Limbaugh said on his program, according to a transcript provided to ESPN. "I'm not even thinking of caving. I am not a caver. None of us are. We have been betrayed by too many who have caved. Pioneers take the arrows. We are pioneers. It's a sad thing but our country over 200 years old now needs pioneers all over again, but we do."

Now the comedy begins. The NRO is doing the freak over this.

Limbaugh says he's colorblind. Yeah, he only sees two colors.

White and black.

Today, after conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh responded to critics of his bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams who have stated that he is "insensitive" about race by claiming that he is "colorblind" and "treat[s] everyone equally," Media Matters for America released research documenting more than two dozen examples of Limbaugh making racially charged or race-baiting remarks.

As Media Matters' research documents, there are at least 28 examples of Limbaugh making racially charged remarks, including:

• "We are being told that we have to hope [Obama] succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles ... because his father was black."
• "I do believe" Obama is an "angry black guy."
• "[I]n Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering."
• "Obama's entire economic program is reparations."
• Obama is "more African in his roots than he is American" and is "behaving like an African colonial despot."
• Obama is "Halfrican-American."
• "Obama has disowned his white half ... he's decided he's got to go all in on the black side."
• Sotomayor "a reverse racist" appointed by Obama, "the greatest living example of a reverse racist."
• Obama "wants us to have the same health care and plan that he had in Kenya" and "wants to be the black FDR."
• Latching onto LA Times op-ed, Limbaugh sings "Barack, The Magic Negro."

• "God does not have a birth certificate. Neither does Obama"; Obama "has yet to prove he's a citizen."

• Limbaugh on Gates controversy: "Here you have a black president trying to destroy a white policeman."

• Limbaugh suggests Obama would not have acted on Somali pirates if he'd known they were "actually young, black Muslim teenagers."

• Limbaugh suggests Democrats, media believe "you can't criticize the little black man-child."

• "The government's been taking care of [young blacks] their whole lives."

• "The days of [minorities] not having any power are over, and they are angry."

• "[M]inorities never do anything for which they have to apologize."

• Limbaugh: "The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well."
• Limbaugh says "NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips."

• Limbaugh declares basketball "the favorite sport of gangs."
• Limbaugh invented "racial component" to Hackett's decision to withdraw from Ohio primary race.
• Limbaugh on Survivor series: "African-American tribe" worst swimmers, Hispanics "will do things other people won't do."
• Limbaugh suggested Colin Powell only supported Obama because of race.
• Limbaugh: Gates is an "angry racist."
• Limbaugh called illegal immigrants an "invasive species."
• Limbaugh repeatedly calls Native Americans "Injuns."
• Limbaugh says Democrats' interest in Darfur is securing black "voting bloc."
• Limbaugh says that if "feminazis" had remembered to oppose "affirmative action for black guys ... they wouldn't face the situation they face today."

Rush Limbaugh's chances at becoming an owner of the St. Louis Rams are virtually over.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said this afternoon that the divisive rhetoric of prospective Rams minority owner Rush Limbaugh makes him unappealing.

"I myself couldn't even think of voting for him," said Irsay speaking from the NFL's fall ownership meetings in Boston.

Asked if he'd spoken to other owners about Limbaugh's candidacy, Irsay said, "I haven't and I don't think I would even go to the point of talking to Tony Dungy, Jim Caldwell, Dwight Freeney, talking to those men and seeing what their positions are. I'm very sensitive to know there are scars out there. I think as a nation we need to stop it. Our words do damage and it's something that we don't need. We need to get to a higher level of humanity and we have.

And the NFL Commissioner chimed in with this.

Commissioner Roger Goodell said here Tuesday that it would be inappropriate for the owner of an NFL franchise to make the sort of controversial statements attributed in the past to conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

"I've said many times before we're all held to a high standard here, and I think divisive comments are not what the NFL is all about," Goodell said at an NFL owners' meeting. "I would not want to see those comments coming from people who are in a responsible position in the NFL, absolutely not."

I heard Mike Francesa, a NY sports talk show host that I actually liked, sort of defend Limbaugh by saying that he didn't realize there was a political test that someone needs to pass to be able to own a team. He said the McNabb statements were ignorant that Limbaugh made on ESPN, but it seemed that he thought that incident was the one NFL players objected to. I believe he doesn't know all the foul and racist garbage Rush has been peddling over the airwaves since Obama started running for president. Hey, most sports owners supported John McCain, but as a sports fan, who really cares about that?

Sports team owners may not be John McCain’s answer to the Hollywood elite, but they’re overwhelmingly supporting his presidential campaign over Barack Obama’s. Through the end of June, team owners in the four major sports and their families have given to or raised as much or more than $3.2 million for McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, compared with as much as $615,000 for his Democratic rival Obama, according to a Politico analysis of data from the Federal Election Commission, the campaigns and interviews.

They aren't out there for hours every day publicly attacking the African American community at every turn. That's the difference.

Media Matters: Limbaugh: "[I]n Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering"

Rush Limbaugh Uses Innocent Detroiters As Show Pinata

Here's just a few more:

Some of his more recent lowlights:

– “Look, let me put it to you this way: The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”

– “We need segregated buses. … This is Obama’s America.”

– “President Obama is black. And I think he’s got a chip on his shoulder.”

– Democrats are interested in Darfur to secure black “voting bloc.”

– “Minorities never do anything for which they have to apologize.”

– Obama’s nomination for president “goes back to the fact that nobody had the guts to stand up and say no to a black guy.”

– Obama is a “halfrican-American.”

If Mike Huckabee put a group together with Dave Checketts to try and buy a team as a minority owner, I bet there wouldn't be this kind of outrage.

Oh, and I love that Limbaugh wants to be a minority owner.

Since I was a teenager I was always intrigued by the NFL draft since I'm a big NY Giants fan. I tape it and then scan until they draft. The Giants took Hakeem Nicks out of NC because the idiot known as Plaxico shot himself in the leg.

The NY Jets made a big trade today to get the highly rated USC QB, Mark Sanchez.

Are you a draft geek too? How is your team doing?