Bears rep Robbie Gould said owners left players no choice

Bears kicker Robbie Gould is the team’s NFLPA player representative. Just chatted with him about the union’s decision to decertify and the league’s decision to lock out the players.

SJ: Did what transpired today surprise players?

RG: As the Bears player rep, I find that the National Football League obviously wanted this to happen, in the sense that they hired Bob Batterman two years, and if you follow his track record, their plan was to lock us out.

I don’t think they’ve given us proposals in which we could find a common ground to stand on. There was no meeting in the middle. So we’ll leave it in the hands of the people that it should be, in the courts. Hopefully, a deal will get done from there.

SJ: What is next?

RG: It’s just an unfortunate situation. We didn’t want to get to this situation. We wanted to play. But the owners brought us to this point.

SJ: So what do you tell teammates?

RG: Guys will continue working out, and doing what their normal [offseason] routine will be. But you have to see what happens down the road.

SJ: Have you communicated with your teammates yet?

RG: I have not. I know if they see and hear decertification, they know what it means. I’ll send an email tomorrow.

SJ: So radio silence with the team?

RG: They’re not allowed to [call]. With no CBA and us decertifying, no GM or coaches can reach out, and we can’t call them.