Ted Lindsay Quotes

I have the mindset of a mid-level guy or a minimum guy. My path here wasn't expected: my path wasn't that I was going to the NBA and making $16 million a year. So I identify more with those guys, and I want to be a voice for them. I want to help them elevate their status in the league. That's my goal.

When it comes to the NFLPA, I don't have problem saying what's right, whether it upsets somebody or not.

Every other sport has player's representation. We don't really have that officially - I know there's like a little players' committee but there's not a players' association, which is what we really need.

I'd like to think I'm always going to defend our players.

I'm going to actively fight for players' rights. Not while I'm in college. I'm always going to keep a consistent track record of what I believe in. But I don't have the clout or the means.

There's no representation. That's why the NBA Players Association was formed, players' unions were formed. That's why those unions were formed - to have representation before you make rules for me that I have to abide by. How can I participate and how can it be fair if there's no representation?

Players should get the best deals for themselves whenever they can. Football is a relatively short career.

I am not going to make any commitments to the teachers union to do anything until they do something that's other than in their own self- interest. And everything they have done so far is in their self-interests, and that's it.

I think the National Football League needs a new union. The heavyweights of this union are not heavyweights enough.

When I played, the owners had the power. The prisoners are running the prison now, not the warden. The warden is strong and he has say so but, the balance of power is definitely with the players.

There is no other bargaining but collective bargaining.

There is no way whereby our labor movement may be assured sustained progress in determining its policies and its plans other than sincere democratic deliberation until a unanimous decision is reached. This may seem a cumbrous, slow method to the impatient, but the impatient are more concerned for immediate triumph than for the education of constructive development.

When I started playing professionally, it made me realize that I had a voice in the league, one that gave me the chance to share a different side of our day-to-day life and the things that were happening on and off the court.

Me as a person, I'm not the president of the NBPA (National Basketball Players Association). I don't even know what to say. I'm not like this perfect, buttoned-up, suit-and-tie guy.

The picket line is the best place to train organizers. One day on the picket line is where a man makes his commitment. The longer on the picket line, the stronger the commitment. A lot of workers think they make their commitment by walking off the job when nobody sees them. But you get a guy to walk off the field when his boss is watching and, in front of the other guys, throw down his tools and march right to the picket line, that is the guy who makes our strike. The picket line is a beautiful thing because it makes a man more human.

There is nothing to arbitrate. Workers have nothing to do with the amount of wages they shall receive. This is solely the business of the company.

It is for the benefit of them and to the public that laborers should unite in their common interest and for lawful purposes. If they stand together, they are often able, all of them, to command better prices for their labor than when dealing singly with rich employers …

Societies organized for the interplay of individual self-interest can collapse into manic tribalism, if not nihilistic violence.

War is something of man's own fostering, and if all mankind renounces it, then it is no longer there.

I think, because of the lack of guaranteed contracts in the league, there's hesitancy to speaking your minds at times. But I feel like there could be a movement beginning where guys are feeling a little more comfortable talking about things that are important to them.

The labor movement is our brother's keeper! The labor movement is our sister's keeper!

What we wanted to tell North Korea is, look, we have told you we are not looking for regime change; we are not looking for war. But don't give us a reason to get involved in any of this, and so we're going to go ahead and push for a strong resolution against North Korea.

A lot of them have families to feed, and I think it's a tragic situation where players aren't comfortable speaking what's on their mind or what's right because they're afraid of consequences that come along with it. That's not an ideal environment for anybody.

The NBA is going to do what they want to do. They're going to do what's best for them; not what's best for us.

It takes someone with a unique background to stand up to the threat of a strike and win.