NEW ORLEANS - The NFL is just 17 months into a 10-year labor agreement with its players. You would think the relationship between the league and the NFL Players Association would be all warm and fuzzy right now.
You would think commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith would be having a lot of three-martini lunches together and plotting how to make a filthy-rich league even filthy richer.
You would think.
Truth is, the two sides have spent much more time together in court and grievance hearings since shaking hands on a new CBA in August 2011 than they have sipping martinis. OK, maybe they haven't sipped any martinis together.
"We reached a very comprehensive agreement a couple of years ago for 10 years to take the game to another level," Goodell said Friday during his annual Super Bowl week state-of-the-league address and news conference. "Unfortunately, we're spending most of our time focusing on issues we had agreed to.
"Collusion charges, which were clearly dealt with in the agreement. Litigation, which was clearly dealt with. HGH testing, which they agreed to. Commissioner discipline. I can go on and on.
"We need to get back to focusing on how do we all work together to make the NFL better. I understand we're going to have differences. I understand there are going to be grievances. I understand why there are lawyers. But we have to find solutions for the best interest of the game. That's what we have to work toward."
On Thursday at its annual Super Bowl week news conference, Smith and the union threw darts at the league, publicly questioning Goodell and company's commitment to player safety.
Smith accused the league of failing to follow proper sideline concussion protocol numerous times this season, and said he planned to ask for the appointment of a chief safety officer.
He called the officiating lockout "one of the most deliberate disregards of safety that I think has occurred in the NFL since its inception."
He released a player survey that indicated 78 percent of the league's players don't trust their team's medical staffs. And he demanded the resignation of the San Diego Chargers' team doctor, David Chao, who Smith said has been found liable of medical malpractice twice.
The ball was back in Goodell's court Friday at his news conference. And he did his best to convince everyone that Smith is the quack, not Chao, and that player safety is, was and always has been No. 1 on the league's list of priorities.
He repeated Thursday's announcement that the league is going to be putting neurological consultants on every sideline next season and will be instituting expanded 3-day season-ending physicals.
"We want to pioneer new approaches to player health and safety that emphasize prevention as well as treatment," he said. "We want people to understand what we're doing to make the game safer. The changes that we're making.
"There's a better recognition of head injuries. Treating them conservatively. We believe the changes we are making to our game will make football better. It will make it safer. And it will make other sports safer."
Goodell said the league will continue to crack down on dangerous hits on defenseless players with heavy fines and suspensions.
"Four years ago at this press conference, I said we have to takes these hits out of the game that we think have a higher risk of causing injuries," he said. "The focus was on defenseless players. I stand by our record. We have made those changes and made the game safer. But I think we're going to have to continue to see discipline escalate, particularly on repeat offenders."
Asked about the players survey showing that 78 percent of the players don't trust their team's medical staffs, Goodell defended the quality of medical care in the league.
"I'm disappointed," he said. "Because I think we have tremendous medical care for our players. These are not just team doctors. These doctors are affiliated with the best medical institutions in the world.
"The medical care for our players is extraordinary. Now, we will always seek to improve it. Find out how we can do things better. But I think it's extraordinary. Talking to players, they feel the same way."
When asked about the union's desire for the league to have an independent chief safety officer, Goodell said he and other representatives from the league last week spent 4 hours with union officials, including Smith, and the subject never was raised.
"I'll do anything that will make the game safer and better," he said. "And they have my commitment to that. I'll be happy to engage in dialogue in a meeting where we can talk about the pluses and minuses of how we can make the game safer."
The Read Option
The run-and-shoot came and went faster than a bad sitcom. Same with the Wildcat. But don't look for the read option to go away any time soon.
"I think this gun-read stuff is here to stay," said 49ers defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. "The run-and-shoot was a gimmick that people learned how to defend and it disappeared. But I think the read option will be here to stay for a while, much like zone blitzing. When it first came in, people said, 'Ah, we'll figure it out.' That was a long time ago and it's still going strong.
Defensive coordinators are going be busy this offseason trying to come up with an antidote for the read option. Some have suggested it won't last because quarterbacks aren't going to be able to survive the licks they're going to take in it. But Fangio disagrees.
"Old-time coaches used to say, 'Well, we'll just go blow up the quarterback and make him pay for [running the option]," he said. "But they're doing [the read] 3-4 yards behind the line of scrimmage and you really can't blow up the quarterback like you could in the old days with the down-the-line option."
Niners offensive coordinator Greg Roman said you have to be smart about how often you have the quarterback run and how you do it. In his team's win over the Packers in the divisional round, Colin Kaepernick ran 16 times for 181 yards because Green Bay played so much man-to-man coverage. In the NFC Championship Game against the Falcons, though, he ran just twice, and one of those runs was a scramble on a pass play.
"If you try to do it too much, I think it will be a short-lived phenomena," Roman said. "You have to be very judicious about how you do it, how you dose it out, when you do it. If you try to make a living off of it, I don't think that's the way to go."
Roman likes the read option because it takes away the one-man advantage a defense has against a team without a running threat at quarterback.
"You regain some numbers," he said. "There's 11 players on offense and 11 on defense. In a traditional offense, a quarterback is minus-one. So now, you've picked up your numbers and evened them out. It's math."
Here Comes the 3-4
If we are reading the smoke signals from Chip Kelly correctly, the Eagles will be switching to a 3-4 defensive alignment. Three other teams - the Browns, Bills and Saints - also are switching to a 3-4. That would bring the number of teams using the 3-4 as their primary front to 15.
"When I first came into the league, there were only three or four teams running the 4-3, and everybody else was using the 3-4," said Fangio, a former Philadelphia Stars assistant who followed Jim Mora to the Saints in 1986 and runs a 3-4 with the Niners. "Then, by the mid-to-late-'90s, it kind of flipped. Now, it's in a slow ascension back to where it's about 50-50.
"[The 3-4] does offer you flexibility because you have a fourth linebacker who knows how to drop [in coverage]. It gives you flexibility to determine who the fourth rusher is. Those outside linebackers become defensive ends usually, so you still have four linebackers out there in a nickel package, which gives you some flexibility there."
Fangio said the 3-4 also probably is a better alignment against the read option. "Some people think it is," he said. "The angles in the running game become a little more difficult than against a traditional 4-3."
Up Next, Joisey
As everyone knows, next year's Super Bowl will be played in the Meadowlands. Goodell acknowledged Friday that the success of that game will determine whether the league ever awards another Super Bowl to a cold-weather city with an open-air stadium.
"Undoubtedly, it's going to have an impact on future decisions for open-air, cold-weather sites," he said. "We believe, though, in the New York-New Jersey market. We think it's going to be a fantastic event.
"We will be prepared for the weather factors. And this community can do that. But the game of football is made to be played in the elements. Now, we hope they're not extreme, on the one hand. But we'll be prepared for that if that's the case.
"Some of our most classic games in history were played in extreme weather conditions. Some of the games I look back on as a fan and say, 'That was fun.' "
Odds and Ends
An estimated $100 million is expected to be bet just on Sunday's coin toss.
The over/under on the length of the Harbaugh brothers' postgame hug/handshake is 5.5 seconds. The over/under on the length of Alicia Keys' rendition of the national anthem is 2 minutes, 5 seconds.
According to bodog.com, Kaepernick is a 7-4 favorite to be Super Bowl MVP. Joe Flacco's MVP odds: 11-4. David Akers' odds of being the game MVP are 66-1.
Odds on who the Super Bowl MVP will thank first: teammates, 8-5; God, 5-2; coach, 12-1; family, 15-1; owner, 20-1; no one, 3-2.
Zoosk.com, a romantic social network, surveyed 4,000 of its members on several Super Bowl-related questions. Eighty-two percent of the women surveyed said John is the sexier of the two Harbaugh brothers.
Quick Hits
While John Harbaugh professes his undying love for his brother Jim, the Ravens coach said he will have no trouble stomping on Jim's Super Bowl dream Sunday. "Not at all," he said Friday during a joint news conference with his brother. "I suspect he feels the same way. It's about the teams. We are fiercely loyal and protective of one another and that's not ever going to change. But the band of brothers in this game are going to be the teams on the sidelines."
You can make a pretty good case that wide receivers Cris Carter, Andre Reed and Tim Brown all belong in the Hall of Fame. But there's a good possibility all three once again will come up short Saturday. For the fourth year in a row, Carter, Reed and Brown all are among the 15 modern-era finalists. And for the fourth year in a row, they will probably split the vote among the 46 selectors. The problem is that all three come from the same era and have relatively similar numbers.
The Eagles obviously need to perform major surgery on the safety position in the coming months. A possible short-term fix: former Eagles cornerback Sheldon Brown. Brown, who was traded to the Browns after the 2009 season, is a free agent. He will turn 34 in March. He's long been one of the league's best run-support corners. He'd have no trouble making the switch to safety.
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