With coaching staffs from 15 teams and counting making known their disagreement with the “friend of the court” brief filed last month by the NFL Coaches Association, the next wave in the development of this story arises from the players’ reaction to the news that their coaches are picking a side other than the players’ side.
“Like they say, you’re either with us or against us,” an unnamed Texans player told Jerome Solomon of the Houston Chronicle, in response to coach Gary Kubiak’s comments regarding the NFLCA brief.
If the owner and the players can continue to make progress toward a settlement without further court action, chances are that the NFLCA issue will fade. Still, in those 15-and-counting locker rooms in which the coaches have picked their employers over their employees, the rebuilding of the bridge between the NFL and the NFLPA* could be followed by some significant fence mending.