When you read people like me rail against the utter incompetence and stone-cold stupidity of the rich, entitled NFL owners who like to charge us fans to watch practices, or hold our teams hostage until be use our tax money to fully fund football stadiums, it's owners like Jerry Richardson I often picture in my mind when I do such ranting.
Granted, Richardson has not been as outlandishly stupid in recent years as his buddies Jerry Jones and Daniel Snyder. That is, until this past week.
The fatman in Carolina notched another mark on his jerk stick last week when reports surfaced that at the recent NFLPA-NFL owners negotiating session, which including quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Drew Brees attending on behalf of the players, Richardson acted like the entitled, arrogant moron many have always known him to be.
From PFT:
Speaking on the Michael Kay Show on ESPN Radio in New York, Cardinals kicker Jay Feely passed along a story from last week’s brief bargaining session in Dallas that Brees and Manning attended.
"Jerry Richardson . . . he’s going to criticize Peyton Manning and Drew Brees and their intelligence in our meeting Saturday?" Feely said. "And sit there and say dismissively to Manning ‘Do I need to help you read a revenue chart son? Do I need to help break that down for you because I don’t know if you know how to read that?’"
Feely's account has been confirmed by other sources. We have more details after the jump, including more harsh words for the schmuck in Carolina who just guaranteed that the next time Peyton Manning plays the Panthers, he's going to drop six touchdowns on them.
More details from Richardson acting like a man-child at the negotiating table with Peyton Manning and the NFLPA [emphasis mine]:
Feely, who didn’t attend the meeting, had his account of Richardson’s condescension corroborated Sunday night by Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports, via three unnamed sources.
"[Richardson] was extremely condescending to them, especially toward Peyton," an unnamed source told Cole. "[Richardson] was the only person on either side who was contentious. Everybody else was respectful. They might have said, ‘I disagree with your point,’ but at least they were respectful. [Richardson] was not."
For example, when Manning was talking about player safety, Richardson reportedly said, "What do you know about player safety?"
At which point, Peyton Manning reached across the table and smacked Richardson in the head with a sludge hammer. Richardson fell from his chair, holding his head while screaming for his mommy. Peyton then screamed down at Richardson, 'You feel that? That's how my slot receiver felt after three hits he took last season. STFU next time you question me about player safety, fat man!'
OK, the paragraph above didn't happen, but part of me wished it did. I just have no words for how arrogant and condescending Richardson is. It seems pretty clear, to me at least, that he is likely one of the moronic owners that actually wants a lockout. It's because of idiots like this that we are in this stupid lockout mess to begin with.
Richardson, who has taken a leadership position among the owners in the negotiation, has been called the "least flexible and most pessimistic" of the owners.
Richardson widely is believed to be intent on driving a hard bargain with the players. He reportedly said during the March 2010 ownership meetings that it’s time to "take back our league."
"We signed a [expletive] deal last time and we’re going to stick together and take back our league and [expletive] do something about it," Richardson said, per Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports, via Cole.
FYI: The NFL is the most lucrative and profitable league in all of sports. The average value of a team is $1.02 billion. National television revenue from CBS, NBC, ESPN, and Fox increased $1.3 million per team to $95.8 million for each of the league's 32 franchises.
Yep. The owners are reeeeeeeaaaaally hurtin', aren't they?
There will be a lockout, boys and girls. And man-child owners like Jerry Richardson are the reason why. Why Richardson thought he could insult THE most popular player in the league, a man respected by just about every current and former player, I have no idea. He must literally be THAT stupid.