Players Union to Hold Hopeful Draftees Out of Combine?

I saw this  story posted at profootballtalk.com (but the report intially comes from nflnetwork’s Jason La Canforna)  that the union is considering  urging players to abstain from participating in the combine and/or showing in person for the N.F.L. Draft.

I guess this is a ploy by the union to show the N.F.L. that it is the players that are the focal point and not the other way around (as in the NFL makes the players).

I understand the message, but I don’t understand the notion of this particular tactic. These are Draft HOPEFULS. Sure there are players who are guranteed to be drafted, by the combine invites well over 300 people to the draft…if all the players skipped the combine it can really cost somebody a chance at a future in the N.F.L. and that is a big sacrifice to ask from people who have not been entitlted to any of the wealth overflow from the NFL Money machine.

In the event of a lockout the owners mutli-billion TV revenues are still guranteed, which means that if a deal isn’t reached it is the players who are more likely to suffer.

Also, it’s only February and if there is no combine I’ll have nothing to do with my time. I haven’t even realistically begun to think about a season without N.F.L. football-and I don’t want to yet. So the union needs to stop discussing this decision and realize the only people these will hurt will be the undervalued players who won’t get the necessary stage to showcase their potential, and also the players who are injured and won’t be able to quell any fears about their injuries (e.g. Bruce Carter).

I hope  the NFLPA seriously reconsiders this ploy and lets cooler heads prevail. Besides there is no deadline for an agreement by the combine and a preemptive strike like this might not go the players way, as I believe many fans are on the side of the players now, but something like banning the combine in anticipation of problems might sway public opinion a little bit towards the owners favor.

Now that this issue has been discussed, let me digress a littlebit to write about a few of the things we have planned as the new editors of this site.

First: I really want to start improving the interaction between reader and writers. I will respond to each commenter and question that is posed at this site, and gurantee I will be able to do so for all questions onmy own posts.  With this I also want to talk about opening up our site for people to develop their own mock drafts as either part of the community or as guest posters on this site. This site does a pretty good amount of traffic  so if you’re ever interested  in posting a mock draft that will be read you can send me an email with the mock draft bartolisj@gmail.com (no attachment I won’t open them) and I’ll see what I can do about posting it here  and giving you the credit it deserves. Along with that I plan on doing a “round table style” of draft coverage with (hoepfully) participants from the reader community. If you’re intersted in that drop me an email. Just make sure  you put something along the lines of “Roundtable” in the heading so I know it’s not spam.

Second: Within the next few days we will be updating the Big Board and expanding the Big Board to at least a 100 players deep. Along with that we will be updating the positional rankings as well.

I plan on doing a number of prospect profiles about players that are potential first round picks as well as players that have intersting stories.

Third: we are asking that you swing by out twitter page and start to follow us as we are going to be making more of a commitment to developing and using twitter effectively. My own personal interest is building a great, friendly, draftnik community. Your help in that is appreciated.

Fourth: we will be highlighting players for “the bust-o-meter” feature that this site uses.

Fifth:  We also hope to have more player interviews and more interaction with the editors at the other fansided sites to broaden all of our horizions.  We’re also considering deploying a new structure to the site we think will improve the reader experience.

Lastly: feel free to chime in with ideas to improve this site either by sending them to my email or leaving a comment. I’ve already stated what my biggest goal is (improving the interaction between reader and writers) and along with that is providing unique and insightful draft coverage that fulfills your needs as a draft fan you might not get other places. If there is something you would like to us to try and incorporate please do not hesitate to chime in with your ideas.

I started this pollon my introduction page, but I’ll just replicate it here.

Thank you,

Jesse Bartolis