NFLPA* Says Players Will Attend Draft, But Things May Be “Different”

After reports came out on Monday that the NFL Players Association had contacted the top 17 prospects of this year’s draft and told them to boycott the 2011 NFL Draft, opinions of the move were rampant across the country. Some thought it was a smart move aimed at getting leverage. Others thought that although they were trying to get leverage, it was not fair to the prospects who had worked hard to get to this moment in their lives.

LSU CB Patrick Peterson came out on Tuesday and said that he had not been contacted by the NFLPA* and that he wanted to be in New York to hear his name called. Shortly thereafter, NFLPA* spokesman George Atallah released a statement on the issue saying, “Let me also correct the record: the NFLPA is not asking anyone to ‘boycott’ anything. NFL Draft in particular. The NFL Draft is special. Players and their families will be in NYC. It just may be different. We will provide details when we can.”

Yesterday, it was presumed that the NFLPA* would have the players who boycotted the draft appear on another network for interviews after they were selected.  I believe this is what they mean when they say things “may be different.” They plan on having prospects give their comments to that network.

While this would indeed make things a tad different on draft day, I do not think the NFL will budge on the issue. After all, they will have the top prospects on stage hugging and shaking hands with commissioner Roger Goodell.