11-08-2019, 03:46 PM
According to prominent labor / sports attorney and author, Jim Quinn, who has been involved in the fight for free agency in all 4 major sports and was recently on an OBI podcast, this was Mike's reaction to free agency becoming a reality in the NFL:
“The one memory I have; and this goes back to when we were fighting about free agency early on and we actually won the first case and we were trying to reach a settlement that would allow free agency and some kind of a salary cap; I remember being in a conference room in the airport in Dallas-Fort Worth,” Quinn recalled.
“And, Mike Brown was one of the owners that was on their negotiating committee—there are a number of difficult owners, including Al Davis, who was a superstar difficult person—but, we were sitting around the room trying to debate different issues. At some point, even though we had already won the case, Mike Brown just shook his head, looked at Gene Upshaw (Pro Football Hall of Fame player, former NFLPA Executive Director) and me and said ‘I’m never ever going to agree to this. Never. I think it’s wrong, I think I should have control over my players,” Quinn said.
“I remember looking at Upshaw and saying: ‘this guy is crazy’”.
“The one memory I have; and this goes back to when we were fighting about free agency early on and we actually won the first case and we were trying to reach a settlement that would allow free agency and some kind of a salary cap; I remember being in a conference room in the airport in Dallas-Fort Worth,” Quinn recalled.
“And, Mike Brown was one of the owners that was on their negotiating committee—there are a number of difficult owners, including Al Davis, who was a superstar difficult person—but, we were sitting around the room trying to debate different issues. At some point, even though we had already won the case, Mike Brown just shook his head, looked at Gene Upshaw (Pro Football Hall of Fame player, former NFLPA Executive Director) and me and said ‘I’m never ever going to agree to this. Never. I think it’s wrong, I think I should have control over my players,” Quinn said.
“I remember looking at Upshaw and saying: ‘this guy is crazy’”.
