Inside The NFL Meetings: Part II

Yesterday, teams attending the annual owners’ meetings were given a list of compensatory draft selections that have been awarded based on a formula I’ve studied long and hard -- but that still makes me question why some picks are higher or lower than others.  The formula’s main components are UFAs (unrestricted free agents) from the previous year lost and signed by teams, with emphasis given to the compensation of the players and their performance during the season.  The carping over compensatory picks is an annual rite of spring for team personnel.

During a break from the first-day sessions, a photographer typically organizes a picture of the coaches.  It’s the only time they’ll all be in one place, although even that’s sometimes problematic since a coach or two often skip the meetings (Bill Belichick is absent this year).  As we know, the picture changes from year to year, sometimes by as many as a third of the faces.

A few agents always attend.  Drew Rosenhaus is notorious for being there, often parading his next free-agent client (or even a non-free agent) through the lobby to give teams an up-close look at who might be on their shopping list (Frank Gore and Lance Briggs have been a couple of his models in previous years).  I’ve spent many a breakfast or lunch visiting with agents about a future negotiation or a potential fire that we might have to extinguish regarding a contract demand.

After a full day of meetings, it’s time to party.  Monday night is the annual party for league officials, sponsors, guests and media, usually themed around the location.  It’s replete with food stations of all types, performers, games for the kids, free-flowing bars and bands.  It will be interesting to see – in light of the times, layoffs at the league and among teams and projections down for the future – if this year’s party displays appropriate modesty given the circumstances.

Today, coaches from one conference meet the media for breakfast, followed by coaches from the other conference on Wednesday.  The sessions are the media’s chance to ask the obvious – and hopefully not so obvious -- questions about the offseason and the season ahead, a breakfast most coaches’ view with anything from interest to indifference or impatience.  Tuesday also features the coaches’ golf tournament, although it’s not a mandatory event since there are more and more coaches who don’t play.  Tuesday night is replete with team dinners, with team staffs often gathering in the same hotel restaurants.  It always was interesting to me how these groups of people lived and worked together yet only seemed to find occasion to dine together when they were far from home at the meetings.

The meetings wrap on Wednesday, although for us working club executives, there’s little to nothing on the agenda after Monday (not that we were complaining).  There’s usually some voting on Wednesday with little in the way of monumental decisions coming out of any meeting. Replay is usually extended with some possible modifications, and some officiating changes are made based on the hot-button issue from the prior season.

The limos soon pull up and owners alert their private planes to fire up.  The meetings have ended, and now team officials must return to work.  Break time is over.

Comments

Add a Comment