NFLPA preps for negotiations

Super Bowl week could be critical for the NFL’s collective bargaining negotiations, with 30 NFLPA team player reps scheduled to meet with union leadership Thursday for an update.

Part of the message NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith wants to send to players is that if they want to dig in their heels on any one issue — including the owners’ push for an expanded, 17-game regular season — they have to be willing to take it all the way.

Smith spoke Tuesday at an AFSCME rally of Florida state workers in downtown

Miami, and said he considered the rally an appropriate backdrop for his message.

“I’m here with a group of people who are willing to take a labor action,” Smith said, indicating the chanting state workers behind him. “And people need to understand that it’s really easy to call for a work stoppage; it’s really hard to win one. So that’s why I started notifying players four years ago about saving their checks, making changes to their debt structure, and the reality is that if we want to hold out and get everything we want, that’s probably a two-year strike.”

Patriots

Longtime offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia, who was the NFL’s longesttenured coach with one team, is retiring after 36 seasons, 34 of which came with New England. Scarnecchia turns 72 in February. He is widely regarded as one of the league’s finest assistants and a critical part of the team’s success.

“It was a privilege to coach with Dante for so long,” head coach Bill Belichick said. “I knew that long before his initial retirement and throughout a second act of continued excellence. Dante is among the very best assistant coaches ever.”