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Time For Bettman/Fehr to Allow Others to Build Trust #NHLPlayer2NHLPlayer |
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“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”
― Ernest Hemingway
This is not an anti-Gerry Bettman blog. This is not an anti-Donald Fehr blog. sorry....
I had a great conversation last night with a player I really respect. He said the biggest issue right now, on both sides, is a breakdown of trust...
"The owners don't trust Fehr because of what happened with baseball and we don't trust Bettman because of what happened last lockout, "the player continued, " I can only speak for the players, but we look at Bettman like 'he is a smart guy, but an arrogant guy. He rubs hockey players the wrong way. And hockey players, we have been raised since little kids to fight. We will fight even if it could potentially hurt us moving forward. Look at how we play the game. A player will dive in front of a blistering slapshot, realizing it could possibly end his career of at least really damage him, but we will do it to stop one goal in one game from being scored. That is the players mentality. So we look at Bettman like he would never do that."
I don't share the same opinion of Gary Bettman, but the fact remains if the players feel this way they will dig in their heels and Donald Fehr knows this and is no doubt playing to it.
Meanwhile, the owners are stuck frustrated that the 50/50 offer didn't get so much as a long few days of negotiations. The owners feel they put their best foot forward and were snubbed entirely...and they were. The two proposals and 1 idea the NHLPA put out there last week would see the owners paying MORE in salaries this season than last.
An NHL source put it this way, "It was as if we said, 'We will sell you our car, but the one thing we need is for you pay for the gas. As long as you are paying for the gas we can discuss the price of the car'", the source continued, "And then the PA came to the table with a proposal built around how much we would pay for the gas to the car they are buying! We sat there saying, 'Wait we aren't negotiating how much gas WE are buying, were you not listening?"
Back to the NHL player I was talking to...
"I think the only way to build trust is for Fehr and Bettman to step aside. At least for a while. We aren't opposed to a 50/50 deal at all. We just need it to come from people we can relate to. I don't understand why the NHL isn't coming to us with the people who work for them who we all respect. They have guys like Yzerman and Shanahan and Nieuwendyk. Why don't we sit down with them and talk about this? What we want, What they need?"
As I heard this player talk, a guy I respect, I was filled with hope for this situation and reminded what NHL players are like. They aren't the bad guys here, they just want to talk to people they know they can trust.
So I am proposing the following idea...and in an effort to get some traction on the internet I am doing something i have never done before... I am creating a hashtag. #NHLPlayer2NHLPlayer.
I want the conversations to be frank and loose, but since both sides require an agenda to come to the table...here it is..
Set up a Meeting This Weekend
Agenda for #NHLPlayer2NHLPlayer Talks
On the NHL side:
Yzerman, Shanahan, Nieuwendyk, the 4 owners on the negotiating committee and a labor lawyer.
On the NHLPA side:
Crosby, Iginla, Doan, Towes, Montador and 2 more players, with a labor lawyer.
Topics.
Start with the premise that it's 50-50, because then both sides are admitting common ground.
Openly discuss the following issues...
Cap transition
Player contract years
Team revenue sharing
UFA rules
Length of CBA
I implore the NHL and NHLPA to take note of this blog.
People ask me constantly "why are you so optimistic when every else is saying the season is screwed?"
My answer publicly has always been, "Well logic dictates they won't shoot themselves in the foot, and besides that the sides really aren't that far apart."
The other reason I am optimistic: I have kept more private, but now as I look at the sport I love being torn apart for no good reason I will share the other reason at the great risk of sounding corny.... I am lucky to be in the very fortunate position to have the trust of people on both sides of this battle. People I trust and people I know to be good people. People who are acting all "businessy" about hockey right now in the press, but who I know love the game as much if not more than I do...so I am trying all I can to get those people to see past their differences and connect on the level they need to to get this done. The people I know realize they are stalwarts of this great and fabled league. They know how to get what they need before killing the league they were granted power to protect. They know it is not about players or owners or even franchises. It is about joy and sport and kids and history...
I know this plea may not work, but I also know both sides have told me they think it is a good idea...so Please, PLEASE make #NHLPlayer2NHLPlayer a reality. There is trust in there. Players are fighters and they need to fight other players. Guys who have been through the wars with them. They want to be told it straight in a way they understand....
“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.”
― Thomas Paine
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