The NFL Players Association offered a blunt response Wednesday to the league's new personal conduct policy. In a 41-word statement, the union said it had not been given the "professional courtesy" of seeing the new policy before it was released and referred to it as a "unilateral decision" made without its involvement.
What do individual union members think? After all, they are the ones who would be subject to harsher and quicker discipline if they are accused of a violent crime.
Some queried by ESPN's NFL Nation reporters declined comment until they had a chance to read and absorb the policy's contents. A few, most notably Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, decried the NFL's minimal consultation with the union. Most, however, focused on one concession commissioner Roger Goodell made: to turn over initial discipline adjudication to a still-to-be-named special counsel.
Goodell will retain authority on appeal hearings, and whether the new hire will fit the NFLPA's vision of a neutral arbitrator remains to be seen. Regardless, below is a sample of what NFL players were saying in the hours after the announcement:
