Sources: NFLPA Wants Draft Boycott

As the NFL lockout continues the players and owners are making blogging about the NFL a very painful experience.  The old saying, “no news is good news” simply just does not make us feel better.  In this case, no news means no NFL.  Not a situation that any of us ever wanted to be in.

There is still plenty of time since the NFL Draft isn’t scheduled to take place for another month.  One side note, the NFL draft will take place regardless of the status of the new collective bargaining agreement.   That brings us to our point though, ESPN.com has a story about the NFLPA having draft prospects boycott the actual draft.

The NFL Players Association is putting into place a plan that would prevent each top college prospect from attending next month’s draft in New York, according to multiple league sources. The NFLPA already has contacted 17 top prospects who ordinarily would have received an invitation to attend the draft and informed them not to go.

Later Monday, a source said the edict is a recommendation, not an explicit order not to attend the draft. The source said the union plans to give the prospects the “same experience down the street.”

If the draftees do not attend, when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announces the name of the first player selected, the player will not walk onto the stage at Radio City Music Hall as has been the custom. And the player will not be there to do interviews with ESPN or NFL Network. The draft will go on, but not in the manner in which it has been conducted before.

“As of right now, this is 100 percent happening,” one source familiar with the NFL Players Association’s thinking said earlier Monday. “This is going down.”

Is this a petty move by the NFLPA or a shrewd negotiating tactic?  Tell us what you think in your NFL Forum.