Steelers safety Ryan Clark went on The Morning Show on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh and discussed the Super Bowl seating chaos and how no progress has been made between the players and the owners on a new collective bargaining agreement.
Clark talked about the NFL's greed and how he had friends and family lose their seats at the Super Bowl. Then he went on a long rant, ripping the owners' negotiating.
"If they told me you know what Ryan, whatever your salary is we're going to give it to you even if you don't come to work. What's your incentive to come to work? And essentially that's what the owners have done," Clark explained. "When you make deals with networks that say we're going to pay you even if you don't play. So what's my incentive to play when if I'm not playing, I cut my biggest overhead out which is my players, and I'm still going to make my money."
Later, Clark called the offers proposed by the owners "ridiculous" and said the NFL "does a good job at posturing."
And you see anytime they're doing anything, they make sure it's scrolling across the bottom of ESPN, or somebody comes out and says this is what the NFL has done. But you never get numbers, you never get specifics. You say we're losing money, we say okay as a union, we want to help in any way we can to make sure this league is prosperous, to make sure this league is going in a positive direction. Show us the books and we can figure out a way together. No, no. We can't show you our books, that doesn't happen.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell released a statement on Tuesday, urging the owners and the players to speed up the pace of the new collective bargaining agreement negotiations.
Clark went on to say that Goodell "claims" he works for the players, but he "clearly" doesn't.
"I have D Smith's cell phone number because he works for us. I don't have Roger's. Maybe he'll call me after this because he's mad at me and make me come to New York or something," he said.
The interview was transcribed by Sports Radio Interviews. You can listen to the entire segment here.