HONOLULU (AP) — The NFC team ended its first Pro Bowl practice by breaking the huddle and shouting, “Win.” One night earlier, Denver quarterback Peyton Manning asked his fellow all-stars to play the game hard.
And players on both sides pledged Wednesday to play more determined in a game with a reputation of being taken less seriously than preseason exhibitions or meaningless Week 17 contests.
“We’re professional football players. I think you take a professional attitude to the game,” said Indianapolis quarterback Andrew Luck, one of two rookie passers in the game along with Seattle’s Russell Wilson. “It is an obligation of ours to continue this game.”
The future of the game to be held Sunday in Hawaii is uncertain. The contest was almost not scheduled at all this year after players faced blowback from commissioner Roger Goodell and fans for clearly not trying last year.
That’s made the 2013 Pro Bowl something of an audition. A league executive said Tuesday the NFL wants to decide on the future of the Pro Bowl by April, when the next regular season schedule comes out.
Manning responded later that night by urging players to play at full speed, according to a report by NFL.com. NFL officials said Wednesday a transcript of Manning’s speech wasn’t available, and Manning was not made available for comment after his team’s practice.
The AFC and NFC squads showed slightly different styles during a low key practice at a high school on Oahu’s west side, with players barely breaking a sweat while wearing T-shirts and shorts.
Manning and Luck took the field at the same time for passing drills to AFC receivers like Houston’s Andre Johnson, Indianapolis’ Reggie Wayne and Cincinnati’s A.J. Green.
The NFC practice included 7-on-7 scrimmage plays, special teams practice with punts and field goals and plenty of passes for Drew Brees, Eli Mannning and Wilson.
While some players, including Brees, spent time signing autographs for fans waiting just outside a campus gate, others didn’t linger around after practice as a bus promptly returned them to the team hotel.
Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz joked he might take a surfing lesson before saying he thinks the game will be well-played.
When asked what the Green Bay coaches on the NFC side might think of him hitting the waves, Cruz said: “That’ll be our secret.”
Brees said the Pro Bowl is important in part because it’s a big moment for Hawaii, a state without an NFL team.
“There’s so many guys who come out here and take this with a sense of responsibility,” Brees said.
Denver cornerback Champ Bailey said players should take the honor of a Pro Bowl seriously because they never know when they will get the opportunity to return.
“This is a tradition that needs to keep going,” Bailey said. “That’s the only way we’re going to keep it going, is if we come over here and take it seriously.”
NFL: Players vow Pro Bowl will be more serious is a post from: PhatzRadio.com
NFL responds to Vilma, NFLPA lawsuits
NEW ORLEANS (AP) The NFL is again urging a federal judge to avoid interfering in Commissioner Roger Goodell’s efforts to discipline four players for the Saints’ cash-for-hits bounty pool.
In a response Wednesday to papers the players filed earlier this week, the NFL says its collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union gives Goodell the power to handle discipline involving conduct detrimental to football “at his discretion.”
U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan is considering the players’ request to overturn varying suspensions to Saints linebacker Jon Vilma (full season), Saints defensive end Will Smith (four games), free agent defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove (seven games) and Cleveland linebacker Scott Fujita (one game).
The players also want Berrigan to appoint a “neutral arbitrator” to handle any discipline in the matter.
The NFL argues that the players’ request “turns the CBA (and the law) on its head.”
“The parties agreed to “trust in (the Commissioner’s) personal judgment,” the papers filed by the NFL said.
The players have argued Goodell’s public comments about the matter, dating to before he had even disciplined to the players, prove he cannot be impartial, and therefore has violated the players’ industrial due process rights, which are also an inherent part the league’s labor deal.
The NFL responded that the standard to prove partiality for an arbitrator within the framework of a labor agreement is much higher than for a judge in a court case. The league cited case law stating, “Nothing in the parties’ contract requires arbitrators to arrive with empty heads.”
The NFL also argued its evidence in the bounty matter is strong enough to justify the commissioner’s actions, whether he was partial to one side or not.
“When all of the circumstances are considered, it is clear that the reasonable observer would not have to conclude that … the outcome is due to `bias,”‘ the NFL said. “The circumstances here include the fact that Plaintiffs do not dispute that the Saints program offered incentives for cart-offs and knockouts, and that cart-offs and knockouts were plays in which an opposing player was disabled or injured, at least temporarily.
“Not disputing that this program existed, Plaintiffs should not be heard to complain that an adverse appeal decision would have to be due to bias.”
NFL responds to Vilma, NFLPA lawsuits is a post from: PhatzRadio.com
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