Gene Upshaw Quotes (50 Quotes)

Wellington Mara would be both pleased and proud today.

But it's still early. Look at what's happening in Jacksonville. The market was there early. They sold a lot of tickets. But they haven't sustained it. Now they're roping off seats in order to avoid blackouts.

He piled on, ... He went beyond what we have in the agreement. When I have an arbitrator go beyond the agreement, I have no choice. Clearly, when you look at this case, his decision even went beyond what the Eagles said in their legal briefs.

Wellington Mara was a true pioneer who understood what it took to make the National Football League great. History will show that his vision, integrity and willingness to share with small-market clubs paved the way for economic success.

The clock is ticking until we get to the point of no return, ... Every time we meet and they stay where they are, we get closer to that point. You never know when you might have progress but they don't feel the urgency at this point. If you count up the months before you get to an uncapped year, it's scary.

We're still trying to get our arms around it the issue of testing. There's no doubt we believe it should be tested for. And there's no doubt we believe it should be on the banned list.

Once we get to the league year, I don't see us getting a deal done any time soon. We're taking the position we're not going to get this resolved, so you should go ahead and do contracts based on that.

Unless something is going on ... that I've not seen in the last day or two, we're just not there yet. I'm not putting a lot of faith in that we're going to reach agreement in the next couple of days.

Whatever happens in this game won't matter after Week 17. If the site was switched in Week 16 or Week 17, I'd have a problem with it. But this is so early in the season, it won't be important.

I think both sides better get prepared where there is no deal, ... I told our staff Monday that's what we have to communicate to the players -- what direction we're going -- and right now it looks like an uncapped year. We can't accept what they have on the table.

This agreement is not about one side winning or losing. Ultimately, it is about what is best for the players, the owners and the fans of the National Football League . . . This new agreement gives us the opportunity to continue our unprecedented success and growth.

I won't come down. The players know that. Only the owners can make a proposal.

San Antonio has expressed interest in getting an NFL team, going back to '93 or '95,

I've been to 32 teams, and all the players understand where we are. They're saying, 'Bring on the uncapped year.

That was all in place with this kid, ... There was nothing anyone could have done that wasn't done. In a matter of minutes, he had the proper medical attention and was at the hospital.

There's no fear that there's a wider problem. The report has been completed. We will be, at some point, giving it to Congress. We're satisfied with the results of it. The players that were named publicly are in random for-cause testing. . . . They're in a level in which they're tested 24 times per year. . . . What this proves is that you'll eventually get anyone that uses. If you use, we'll find you. You will be found out and then you will suffer the consequences of the program. That's the way it works.

It's beginning to sound like that movie 'Groundhog Day.' They give us the same thing over and over and over. Their last proposal to us was totally unacceptable. You see what happened to hockey. Now basketball is moving in the same direction. I don't see us as being too far off the pace from those two. For some reason, the owners have not moved the ball at all.

The players have worked very hard to make this game the best in the world. The players are committed to ensuring that the game of football remains on the field and not in the courtroom.

On behalf of the players, the NFLPA staff and the negotiating team, we are pleased that this process has finally concluded with an agreement. This agreement is not about one side winning or losing. Ultimately, it is about what is best for the players, the owners and the fans of the National Football League.

I am not going to accept a deal just for the sake of having labor peace. . . . The deal has got to be fair.

We've demonstrated we are not afraid to decertify. We understand the laws and what's available to us.

We'd like to see it. We all understand that's a big market. We all understand that's the second-largest market and we should be in that market. And as we go into the TV negotiations the league's contract runs through 2005 and look toward the future, we need to address that.

There obviously will not be a cap beyond 2006. So if anyone expects me to make a deal to sell the players on making less money, I'm not going to do that.

We are pleased that this process has finally concluded with an agreement. This agreement is not about one side winning and losing. Ultimately, it is about what is best for the players, the owners and the fans.

Additional thanks go to my old boss, Al Davis, for being the first to rise, as he did in 1993, in support of Paul (Tagliabue) and an agreement.

We're very concerned. We've requested the tapes of the game so we can look at them. Bur our medical adviser called me and said he couldn't believe they didn't notice Kurt had a concussion.

We're not asking them to play him, we can't force them to do that. But if they're not going to let him come back to practice and do all the other things associated with that, then we want them to cut him, let him become a free agent now.

The NFL negotiators called us tonight to indicate that they will take our complete package to the owners for an approval vote on Tuesday. We have therefore agreed to extend the free agent deadline until midnight Wednesday in order to provide time for that vote to be accomplished. It was the NFL's previous rejection of our proposal earlier this evening that caused the talks to break down.

Whatever happens in this game will not matter after Week 17. If the site was switched late in the season, I'd have a problem with it. But this is early in the season.

And we're running out of time. There's no progress, there's nothing to report. The positions are still the same.

What we're trying to do is encourage people to participate. You can not win unless you get in the game. You've got to get into the game and you've got to put your name out there. What Herman was saying is everyone that's asked should play the game.

It's absolutely crazy. We're like the gang that can't shoot straight. I would never have agreed to move the deadline unless they acceded to my financial conditions. I want to go to bed, too. But once they agreed to take our proposal to the owners, I had no choice.

Things like this are about the integrity of the game and our sport and we have to make sure it is dealt with sufficiently.

We have to give them a chance to have their meeting and vote on our package. They can vote yes or no.

We're taking the position it will not get resolved. We're just not there yet. Today, we might as well head to an uncapped year.

He meant as much to us off the field as much as on it, ... He had his name on the lawsuit and he didn't get one penny. That's just the type of guy he was. His character, his integrity was everything any NFL player should aspire to be.

It's actually our model that they have been holding up as the way to go.

The longer we talked, the further apart we got. Nothing happened for us to make a deal today.

This is beyond where Terrell Owens is. This affects all our players. It's why we have an issue with the language in these contracts. Things we're able to gain in collective bargaining, some clubs are finding a way to undermine them. That's also what this is all about,

We don't want to leave it with them, ... They've taken the position that revenue sharing is none of our business. The hell it isn't.

I need a number that starts with a 6. I said it at the beginning and I've said it all the way through.

They've taken the concept of designated gross revenue and changed it to total football revenue and basically come up with the same amount they're paying the players now, ... They have not made a proposal to us since we started this whole process. All they say is, 'We reject whatever you want.' Then they say what we want is too much. . . . Once we get to March 2006, when the league calendar starts, as far as we're concerned there's no need to make a deal. If that's what they want, we'll go there too.

If we are having a difficult time reaching an agreement now, I don't want to imagine what it could be like in 2006 and 2007. If they don't like our proposal now, they really won't like it then.

We have done everything medically we can do to prevent this. We have doctors trained in emergency medicine, in heart problems and other specialties standing by at every game. It's not just internists. It's people who know what to do in every emergency. It just wasn't enough.

We're not negotiating this in the atmosphere the NHL was in, with teams going out of business. We know what the revenue growth is.

Our number has to start with a six.

We're running out of time. I'm at my bottom line. I have nowhere else to go. I've said for years that the only thing that would prevent us from getting a deal was if one side gets greedy. Well, they've gotten greedy.

It has to be total football revenue this time around.

It would be just like baseball. It would have been very easy for him to say, 'I have the largest market and I don't want to share.' Which is what we have going on right now. We do have a group who believes the reason they have success is they're so much smarter than everyone else. I'm not begrudging them for having that thought, but they have to understand where it all came from and why.

We were almost in arbitration a couple of times, but everyone thought that it was in everybody's interest to reach a settlement. If you leave it up to an arbitrator, you have no control of the situation. We have a duty to represent the player, and that's what we did.