Sherrington: NFL has lost credibility it may not get back

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Every stalled negotiation needs a good shove to get it going, and unfortunately for the NFL, it went right off a cliff.

Not until the league was humiliated Monday did it decide to try to settle with the officials’ union, but by then it was too late.

The NFL had already lost in the court of public opinion. Now and forever.

Roger Goodell tried to tell us with the severity of his sanctions in Bountygate that he was out to protect players and the integrity of the league. My professed opinion was that he merely tried to cover the league’s backside in case of any future lawsuits by former players. He could argue that he did his due diligence, as opposed to all the commissioners who came before him.

Goodell lost any shot at building on that case when it came to the owners’ stand against the officials’ union. Coaches and players seemed willing to give the replacements a shot, but the matter quickly spun out of control. They treated the new guys like substitute teachers, taking advantage wherever they could.

The replacements were largely unqualified, as was evident at the end of the Green Bay-Seattle fiasco. They were put in an impossible position. The owners should have realized as much, yet they chose to take the hard line. And for what?

Early Wednesday, a source told ESPN that the difference between the two sides was “about $2.”

A multi-billion dollar industry will concede to the 121-member union, but that’s not why the owners lost. They lost because they proved beyond doubt that money means more to them than safety or integrity, no matter what Goodell tried to tell us in his actions against New Orleans. The league’s millions of fans won’t forget this public relations disaster. They won’t get over it in Green Bay any time soon.

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