'How the heck are they laying people off?'
Foote became angry when he read in a Detroit newspaper about the Lions forcing employees to take unpaid furloughs because of the lockout. Many teams have done this, including the Baltimore Ravens, who this week rescinded a 25 percent pay cut for office staff and repaid them the money after it became public.
"That's ridiculous. We all know through this lockout owners aren't losing money, they're making money," Foote said. "They pay us $1,000 a week just to work out. Roster bonuses haven't been paid."
They also don't have to pay health insurance, contribute to the pension fund, pay for medical issues, pay for lunches during the spring workouts and much more.
"To lay people off to save money," Foote exclaimed. "I don't know who they're trying to fool. How the heck are they laying people off? I don't get that part. That ain't right right there. That's affecting people's lives; they're not making millions of dollars, many of them are going check to check.
"It's the first time I actually got mad when I read that the other day. They're going too far. That's ridiculous now. The owners are starting to make themselves look like the big companies that move people outside the country. I'm not talking about the Rooneys, I know what they're cut from."
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11149...#ixzz1NvMbHZy4
Great points by Larry Foote. So many stupid or emotionally misguided quotes by players gain traction in the national press, it's a shame a thought provoking question such as this, with the great follow up points he made goes virtually ignored. It's a great question that while it's been grazed upon slightly by some, no member of the press that I know of has pointed out that if anything the owners expenses during this lockout are less than they'd normally be, so laying off office staffers and asking assistant coaches, trainers etc.. to take a reduced check at this point is obscene.
Another good question would be how does Roger Goodell allow owners to do something this stupid to begin with? If you're trying to be p.r. savvy and win the battle of public opinion how does this help? The money being "saved" by these teams doing this is spit in the ocean relative to the overall operating costs of doing business, if Goodell had any fucking brains he'd issue a cease and desist order to all those teams doing so at this point and ban those thinking of it from doing so in the immediate future.