ColoradoHockeyFan
Registered User
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/columns/story?id=2026246
A worthwhile read in its entirety, but here are a few excerpts:
A worthwhile read in its entirety, but here are a few excerpts:
Players insist they will follow executive director Bob Goodenow to the ends of the earth (did anyone say over a cliff?), but if that solidarity is really so ingrained, why is the union threatening to take back the lockout pay of those who decide to become replacement players?
And why is the union threatening to decertify any agent who has the temerity to represent replacement players?
If everyone is in line, walking in one step, speaking with one voice, then such heavy-handed measures wouldn't be necessary. Right?
The league also is poised to file a second complaint with the NLRB on Friday against the NHLPA's threats to punish agents, a source told ESPN.com Wednesday. The league had asked the NHLPA to assure agents they won't be decertified for representing replacement players, but the union's response on Wednesday wasn't satisfactory in allaying the league's concerns, the source added.
Yet by threatening its membership and their agents, the union actually weakens its solidarity by revealing itself as petulant and unyielding.
"They've said it. It's 100 percent confirmed," one agent said of the union's twin threats.
"It is so wrong what they're doing," the agent said. "I understand where they're coming from, but this is so desperate. It's heavy-handed. But it's exactly who they are. They rule by fear. People are too afraid to say what they think."
The situation so enraged former Atlanta Thrashers president Stan Kasten that he has announced he will represent players who want to become replacement players, and he's calling on any lawyer who ever wanted to be a sports agent to come forward and offer up their services, too.