Last week, we had the pleasure of bringing you an interview that SBN did with Commissioner Goodell and General Counsel Jeff Pash (click here for the transcript), and this week we have the opportunity to hear the other side of the story. Player rep DeMaurice Smith and 49ers LB Takeo Spikes sat down with SBN bloggers to tell their side of things. The full transcript will follow, but here is an excerpt:
On Roger Goodell's letter to players sent on March 17:
DeMaurice Smith: The league had intent to lock our players out since at least early 2009, and probably 2008. To the guys who are on the call, I'm sure you've seen the decision tree that came from an internal NFL document from early 2009, have you seen that? The document is called their decision tree. Roger's letter to the players - in that short letter, Roger said more words than he said throughout the entire mediation process. You can quote that. For a guy who spent more time writing a letter to the players than he spent engaging in good-faith negotiations during 15 days, does that sound like a true intent on behalf of the National Football League to reach a deal during the final 15 days of mediation?
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We got lots of good material from this interview to follow... Stay tuned!