ChiefsPlanet - Poop Eric Winston: Don't care if NFL 'dies out in 20 years' because of work stoppage

Winston not concerned if NFL dies out in 20 years

ESPN.com news services

NFL Players Association president Eric Winston agreed with DeMaurice Smith's recent comments that a work stoppage in 2021 is likely, given the current relationship between the union and the league.

But Winston took it a step further Monday in an interview with WCPO in Cincinnati, suggesting that players shouldn't care that a strike or lockout "might kill the goose that laid the golden egg."

"Honestly I don't care and I don't think the guys in this locker room care whether [the NFL] is going to be around in 20 years because none of us are going to be playing," Winston, an offensive tackle for the Bengals, told WCPO. "So if these guys [the owners] want to own for a long time, then they can own for a long time. But another work stoppage might kill the golden goose."

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NFLPA head: 2021 strike or lockout very likely
A work stoppage in 2021 is "almost a virtual certainty," NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith told Sports Illustrated in a video interview posted Thursday.

Smith, the union's executive director, said last week that "the likelihood of either a strike or a lockout is almost a virtual certainty."

The NFL's current collective bargaining agreement, which is set to expire in 2021, was finalized after a 132-day lockout in 2011.

Winston, 33, said the union is preparing its players for another prolonged labor dispute but emphasized that the long-term health of the NFL is not a concern of his.

"I'm certainly not worried about it," he said. "I'm not going to be around that long. I don't care if even if there are rookies in here -- they're not going to be playing that long.

"So if this thing dies out in 20 years, it dies out in 20 years. That's not really my concern, and I don't think it's any of these players' concern in here either."

Smith, when asked about Winston's comments during an interview Tuesday with ESPN's Outside The Lines, said the veteran offensive lineman is "a person who understands the frame and business of football."

"The owners locked us out the last time," Smith said. "They took the decision to make sure that people didn't have a place to work. They cut off the insurance to our families. They wanted to force an 18-game schedule. What are you supposed to do? Fight back, right?"

Winston is a 12-year veteran and has been the NFLPA's president since March 2014. He acknowledged that there are "always going to be issues between labor and management" but also said that a work stoppage will be the "inevitable outcome" unless serious progress is made in negotiations.

The NFLPA has clashed in recent years with the NFL over player discipline in such high-profile cases as Adrian Peterson's suspension for child abuse, Tom Brady's Deflategate suspension and, most recently, Ezekiel Elliott's suspension for alleged domestic violence.

Winston also was asked Monday why he thinks fans tend to side with ownership in labor disputes.

"My personal theory is [fans] think they have a stake in the team," he said. "I was as blindsided by it probably as anybody [in 2011]. ... They don't look at the issues the way we look at issues -- wages, hours, working conditions, and health and safety. You could talk about the same thing in a coal miners' union meeting as we do in our meetings.

"I think fans look at the team and say that that's their team -- they have an ownership in that. That's why you always hear fans say 'Oh, the salary cap,' and they think they're kinda the general managers. Obviously fantasy football and things like that play into it."