No Way Ed Reed Doesn't Play

Glenn Younes joined the Gary Stein Show over the weekend to talk more about the future of Ed Reed with the Baltimore Ravens, and if current NFLPA Executive Director, DeMaurice Smith, is in danger of losing his job.

Younes believes that Ed Reed will be on the field come this September.

“My opinion alone, I don’t think there is any way he doesn’t play,” he said.

If Reed plays this year, Younes believes that the Ravens will allow Reed to test free agency because they did the same with Linebacker Ray Lewis.

“If they played a game with free agency chicken with Ray Lewis, you don’t think they would play that with Ed Reed?” he said.

Younes believes that in order to build up the legacy of the Ravens, the owners have to keep franchise players like Ed Reed in the Raven’s uniform for life.

“What’s 15 million dollars in the life of the Franchise? Again we have to remember we are starting business here in Baltimore, the business of football. It’s only been going since 1996, how long have the Giants, and the Redskins, and the Cowboys, and the Steelers, and the Patriots and Jets, how long have they been doing business? They have legacies. They have Super-Bowl Hall of Famers. We have Ed [Reed] and Ray [Lewis] and we need to make sure we lock them up,” he said.

Glenn got into how Reed’s friendship with NFL PA President Dominque Foxworth has changed his views of the NFL and that Ed Reed wants to speak out for the players who do not have the status to do so against the business side of the NFL.

“I think he’s being sort of a mouth piece for other players saying ‘hey listen, this is a business and we the players aren’t just pieces on a chess board that you can move around. We’re actually human beings and we have to have some level of respect from the league in general,” he said.

Recently there have been people criticizing the way DeMaurice Smith handled the CBA agreements last year, but Younes said he thinks Smith is not necessarily the problem.

“I think he did a decent job. The problem with the way the NFL structure is, that the owners unlike basketball, baseball, and hockey, have all the power in football, the players have none of it and it’s reversed in every other business model. It’s so tilted in the owners favor in football,” he said.


(cbslocal.com)