In a national media conference call Tuesday, NFLPA President Domonique Foxworth declared trust as a big factor in the lingering issues between the players and National Football League. With recent events such as the bounty case, Foxworth says that players are just unwilling to trust NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on issues such as HGH testing, which was discussed during the call.
“If every proposal we bring back to the players, they receive it from a negative place because they don’t trust anybody on Park Avenue, then it’s really hard to get anything done,” Foxworth said. “I couldn’t, if I wanted to, convince our players that you can trust Roger or you can trust the league.”
The conference call lasted nearly an hour and every issue that was discussed seemed to deal with a lack of trust between the two sides. The now retired defensive back, Foxworth said on the topic of HGH testing that players were willing to “expose themselves to an imperfect test,” but are hesitant due to the lack of an appeal in the NFL’s proposal.
League spokesman Greg Aiello swiftly denied the statement by tweeting:
Not true+he knows it. RT @bobglauber: NFLPA Pres D Foxworth says players willing to undergo HGH tests but NFL doesn’t want an appeal process
— Greg Aiello (@gregaiello) February 19, 2013
“We’ve had kind of had a long history with our union and the league, with a relationship that has deteriorated the trust between the two,” Foxworth said. “Our players don’t seem comfortable moving forward and I don’t feel comfortable moving forward without the proper protections in place. As far as I understand, there’s no reason not to have those protections in place. That’s the holdup, as far as HGH is concerned.”
Beyond the HGH issue, the NFL players association reiterated their desire to have independent doctors on the sideline of each game. Their proposal is for those independent doctors to be credentialed without pay from NFL clubs and for those doctors to have final say on serious injuries. This stemming from the NFLPA’s “State of the Union” press conference during Super Bowl week, when the union announced a survey displaying 78% of players polled simply do not trust their medical staff.
“The most important thing is that the doctors are reminded of the Hippocratic Oath, reminded that their first duty is in the interest of the patients, Foxworth said. “A large portion of players believe that the doctors’ alliance with the team puts what’s best for the team ahead of what’s best for the player. That’s the kind of the big picture of how we feel about that issue.”
NFLPA spokesman George Atallah also told media on Tuesday’s call that the union would be willing to cooperate with Congress. “We’ve always told members of Congress that we will be happy to cooperate in any way that they ask us to, whether that’s a hearing, whether that’s document exchange, whether that’s more internal meetings,” Atallah said. “I don’t see the idea of a hearing as a threat, per se… We’ll be happy to proceed and help them out.”
The union’s director of salary cap Mark Levin was also made available during the conference call, and he doesn’t expect a huge increase in 2013. There has been speculation that the cap may not go up much in future years, but Levin said it will “absolutely go up in the future.” A significant jump will occur when higher revenues from new TV contracts take effect in 2014 and 2015, Levin explained. “As the revenue increases the cap will increase. We just don’t know how much.” Levin also noted that benefits paid to players not included with salaries that count against the cap amount to $22 million per team for this year.
The union is currently not aware of 2013 Franchise tag numbers. “As soon as we know the salary cap numbers, we’ll know what the franchise tag numbers are,” Levin said. NFL teams were able to begin tagging players Monday, but there hasn’t been any action as of yet.
George Atallah also touched on the new rule established in 2013 that would make it mandatory for players to wear hip and thigh pads. Atallah described it as a low priority. “We’re open to it, but there are other places where we need to start on health and safety that strike me as more pressing than mandatory Nike hip and thigh pads.”
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