"It was quite a week for the locked-out NFL players, what with talk of an "alternative" draft, Adrian Peterson's line about "modern-day slavery" ? backed up by the Steelers Rashard Mendenhall ? and the Chargers' Kevin Burnett calling commissioner Roger Goodell a liar. Take it easy, fellas. Such bombast and rhetoric shed more heat than light and can sway a jury in the court of public opinion. "It would probably be nice to have that (public sentiment) victory, but I think the players realize they'll never win it," said ESPN analyst and former NFL offensive lineman Mark Schlereth. Well, no, not if they keep pulling stuff like this. "They're horrible from a public-relations standpoint," Schlereth said. Besides that, in most sports labor disputes, fans usually regard the owners as slightly less despicable than the players. But in this current squabble, the players are thumping the owners, according to several polls. In one of them, New York state residents took the players' side by a 58-21 margin. These same folks also picked Derek Jeter over Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and Jackie Robinson as New York's greatest athlete ever. Fans might lack a sense of history, but they seem to sense when one side is getting a rawer deal than the other." Read more: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/steelers/s_728139.html
