NFL commissioner Roger Goodell yesterday refused to discuss the reinstatement, or disciplinary status, of Plaxico Burress or Michael Vick.
“Those are decisions I’ll make as they come to me,” Goodell said during a press conference on labor matters. “As I said on the Michael Vick case, until he’s concluded all his legal process I’m not going to address it.”
The same applies to Burress, whom Goodell said he has not spoken with.
“You want to make sure you have all the facts,” Goodell said. “You want to make sure you understand exactly what transpired, and you do it in the best interests of their well-being, recognizing individual rights and the rights of all of our clubs and the best interests of the game overall.”
*
The NFL and the players’ union will start negotiations tomorrow in Manhattan on a new collective bargaining agreement, hoping to avoid a lockout in 2011.
Goodell said he was confident of avoiding a work stoppage, though he admitted it could go to the “final moment,” even if it means an uncapped season in 2010.
“You haven’t heard discussion about [a lockout] from us — we’re in this to make an agreement,” Goodell said. “We want a long-term agreement that works for the players and the owners. I believe we can sit down in a reasonable fashion, and I’m hopeful the two sides will be able to reach an agreement that works for everyone.”
Still, one never knows: The owners unanimously opted out of the CBA last fall, the economy is mired in a recession and NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith has called the negotiations a “war.”
Goodell said his team — led by NFL legal counsel Jeff Pash — won’t be hurried by a March deadline, beyond which the 2010 season would be played without a salary cap.
“We’re not setting any deadlines or any dates,” Goodell said. “We have two more years of football, and we’d like to have an agreement that works for everybody during that period of time. If it takes right up until the final moment, then it takes up until the final moment.”
*
Goodell, Giants co-owner John Mara and Jets owner Woody Johnson — at a ceremony at the new Meadowlands Stadium yesterday — all acknowledged the toll the recession is taking on teams and fans.
“It’s had an effect with our club seating, which we still have a couple thousand available,” Mara said. “I know it’s had an effect on people, and we’re very sensitive to that. We try to work with people on an individual basis to … find an option that allows them to stay in the building. But it’s had an effect on suite sales [and] naming rights.”
Clearly. Although Mara said their seats are 95 percent sold, nobody has bought naming rights to the new stadium. Johnson insists his Jets anticipated and prepared for that possibility, and that they’re “very close” to having sold all their PSLs.
“If the economy hadn’t gone south in September, we would’ve been sold out by now, no question, so it has had some effect,” said Johnson, dismissing any fears of a television blackout due to empty seats. “I’m very confident there will be nothing available by the time we open.”
*