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merlin
What I mean is that the will of the players will fail and they'll get an agreement done that favors the owners. I'm not all-in with the owners or anything. I simply EXPECT both sides to duke it out and the owners will win. Of course I don't think the union will be literally broken.

We'll see how this goes. I'm not going to get too much into the details at this juncture because there's a ways to go, and there will undoubtedly be some changes in expectations and desires on both sides by the time this thing goes live.

All Smith said is that any 3rd party who expects the union and NFL to be harmonious is mistaken. (Like always) it will be a war. Like last time when the NFL decided in advance to lock the players out.

You seem to think the union can't win fights. Well...they have. The NFL would not be the NFL we know right now if the union was so easy to beat. They've won on their share of issues.

So, no, the owners have not always won across the history of their conflicts. Again...the NFL would not be what it is now if they had been dominant that way.

And to be doubly clear on my initial point, Smith wasn't declaring war on the owners. He was saying that their conflicts are always, mutually, war.

I get into the issues now because that's how I decide where I stand on things. I don't go "yay owners!" or "yay players" in some automatic way. I go, well who wants what and what are those issues. So for example, should issues of discipline reside solely with the league office? That's the only important thing. What are the issues.