Antonio Cromartie of the New York Jets is out there again today calling people "a-holes." Only this time I think New York Jets fans, New England Patriots fans -- in fact NFL fans everywhere -- might just stand up and applaud the Jets cornerback. This time Cromartie was directing his ire toward Commissioner Roger Goodell, NFLPA chief CeMaruice Smith and anyone else involved in the current negotiations for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement.
"You got our head union rep acting like an a-hole," Cromartie told Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. "They got their guys acting like a-holes. So they just need to get their sh– together and just get it done."
Cromartie wasn't done.
" ... it’s getting to the point where it’s getting ridiculous when everything is always dealing with money. You’re basically dealing with people’s livelihoods. ... To me, you need to stop bitching about it. If you want to say that you want to get into a room and meet. Then, do it. Don’t just talk about it."
Good for Cromartie. Somebody other than Goodell or a member of the media needed to call out Smith for stupidly declaring "We are at war," in a recent reference to the labor negotiations. That type of remark is an insult to the soldiers we have around the world who really are at war, those who have previously served, and those who have died for this country. Football players and coaches tend to fall back on military terms, but that's way over the line.
Goodell isn't exactly innocent here, either. He said the other day that a new agreement is going to take " "a sustained and disciplined commitment and around-the-clock talks."
You know what else it's going to take, commish? The willingness to actually listen and negotiate, not just slam your fist on the table and say 'I want an 18-game schedule, plus this, this and this and I could care less what you want.'
So, who knows if Cromartie's words will actually help anything. They probably won't. I was, however, glad to hear them.
Loading comments...