Smith: Lockout cannot be reduced to slogan

COLLEGE PARK, MD - DeMaurice Smith had just installed behind the podium when the University of Maryland students began chanting: "We want football."

The response of Smith: "I want football, too."

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And I have to tell you that it is very different from something as simple that "shut up and play." This is not the decision we made. We took the decision to fight for which we were going to be and who we are.

"-DeMaurice Smith, in his speech to the graduates of Maryland".

The NFL Players Association Executive Director then gave a graduation speech that compares the struggle of lockout of the players against the owners for the critics, students will face in their future life. His final bit of advice, he depended on his own recording of "Rock and Roll of the Gary Glitter (part 2)" and encourages everyone to applaud while shouting the mild profanity that Maryland fans inserted into the song basketball games.

"To anyone who thinks that for a minute that passion is something that is futile and cheap, I have two words for them: suck you,"Smith said."".And for someone who always thinks it's the wrong thing to do to take care as long as you are ready to risk everything because it is fair, reserve these two words for them. ?

It was a difficult time, in part because the recording of the song Smith was not very strong. Many thousands who packed the Comcast Center - especially the families and friends - did not play the game.

After the speech, Smith asked how these two words could work around the negotiating table.

"All I can do is you say what I have said my 6-year-old daughter when she heard him for the first time," he said through the diplomatic channel. "It's all about love".

Smith said no one should be "read what that this is what whatsoever" on his use of the song, other than passion, that it evokes basketball games in Maryland. Passion was the theme of his speech, and he the invoked when he said that the lock-out should not be reduced to a slogan as "Shut up and play."

"We care enough about who we are and who we want to be?". Smith said. "The decision to continue and if necessary to fight for what is right has been a decision these players two years ago.". And I have to tell you that it is very different from something as simple that "shut up and play." This is not the decision we made. We took the decision to fight for which we were going to be and who we are. ?

Smith, who followed courses at Maryland in 1985 and in 1986, refused to comment on any specifics of the situation of the work of the NFL, including the recent decision of the Court of St. Louis set the expectations of the players for an early end to the lockout.

"We believe as a group it is important to fight for fairness," he said. "And I am proud of the players who have stepped up to be leaders."

Later Thursday, co-owner of New York Giants John Mara had an essay published on nfl.com and giants.com in which he warned that any victory before the courts by players could cause chaos throughout the sport.

"The likely changes would be great for the case of lawyers, but step for players, teams, or, more importantly, fans," Mara wrote. "For example, there could be no minimum player salary League internationally, with many players make less that they are now, or no team player minimum fees, with wage masses Cup of the clubs in many as some teams do in other sports. Other components of bedrock of the competitiveness of the NFL, such as the project would be questioned and assaillis as of antitrust violations. ...

"It could be player various team team benefit plans and limits on the ability to apply other rules of the League-wide who take advantage of the players, especially the players met who go not to the Pro Bowl," he wrote.