I’m not sure people realize what happened at Gillette Stadium last week.

 

It came less than 24 hours after Jay Cutler was traded from Denver to Chicago, so perhaps the football community was distracted. And it didn’t happen in front of any microphones or TV cameras, so perhaps the lack of audiotape allowed it to float into oblivion.

 

But whatever the reason, I’m stunned Adalius Thomas’ comments from April 3 have not generated more attention.

 

In short, Thomas, an established veteran star and former union representative, threatened to fake an injury in order to skip games should the NFL vote to expand the regular season.

 

The Patriots linebacker made his comments with a smile, but he wasn’t joking. He was on the record and dead serious.

 

If anyone needs an indication where matters stand between owners and players as the NFL heads into its most crucial and contentious negotiating period in over a decade — there’s your evidence.

 

It’s about to blow, if it hasn’t already.

 

Want to hear something even more outrageous than Thomas’ threat? Roger Goodell believes the NFL has the right to add two weeks to the season and not pay the players any more money for it. That’s no joke, either.

 

“They are being paid for the preseason games,” said the commissioner at the owner’s meetings in March. “It’s all part of our total gross revenue, and it’s calculated up and they get a percentage of that. They might not get a check cut during that (exhibition) week, but that’s how they’re paid and those revenues are part of that. That’s something that they have to understand, and I’ve said that to players directly and it’s something we’ll continue to reinforce with them.”

 

Yikes. I wonder if Tom Brady would agree. NFL players are paid their salary over the 17 regular season weeks, including the bye date, which means Brady’s team-high $5 million salary will come in increments of $294,117 in 2009. In the preseason, veteran players make $1,225 per week.

 

Somehow, someway, the owners apparently want to convince Brady that the four preseason games are currently computed in his salary, even though the checks he receives from September through December are worth over 240 times what his August checks are.

 

Good luck with that one, Roger.

“You're telling me that Tom Brady is going to play a regular-season game that would have been a preseason game for $1,200?” said an incredulous Thomas. “So, instead of getting paid your regular check you're going to get paid $1,200, and you're telling me I'm getting paid?

 

“No, don't even give me that. … We're not doing that. You can mark me down on the injured list for two weeks. You can put that in your books. You've done lost your mind.”

 

Indeed, Goodell’s insistence that the players play extra games at the same rate is so outrageous it has to be considered a canard. When the owners ultimately back down from it, they’ll claim they’re making a concession. Obviously, it will be nothing of the sort.

 

Anyway, Thomas said something else that I found fascinating. And it had nothing to do with the refusal of owners to open their financial records (“If you really want to cry about money, open your books up”), the current system of fining players (“It’s like getting a speeding ticket and going to jail for life”) or the continuing protection of quarterbacks. (“Give him some pompoms and put him in a skirt”)

 

Don’t get me wrong. All those quotes were entertaining.

 

But the thing that really got me had to do with beer. Yes, beer.

 

“You (as a player) can't make a beer commercial because it's unethical, but everybody that retires is in a Coors Light commercial at the podium, and it's the official beer of the NFL,” said Thomas. “Just say you don't want us to make a beer commercial because we want to take all the money from the beer companies.”

 

Did you even know that current players aren’t allowed to appear in beer ads? It had never occurred to me. And as it turns out, the players don’t believe that ban has anything to do with image or branding. They believe it has to do with keeping revenue out of their hands.

 

So this is what it’s come down to, folks.

 

Jim Mora at the podium.

 

In reading Thomas’ remarks, I’m reminded of “The Godfather, Part II,” when Michael Corleone witnesses a Cuban rebel blow himself up on the streets of Havana. To his cohorts, it was an isolated incident. But to Michael, it was a harbinger.

 

I get that kind of feeling here. That Thomas is as well-versed and opinionated on something as innocuous as a Coors Light commercial should tell you all you need to know. This thing is getting deep. The sides are digging in. Old grievances are coming to the surface. Players are educating themselves.

 

And Thomas’ threat to fake injury in order to sit out games? Picture the rebel blowing himself up.

For 20 years running, the players and owners have been able to slice up the cake as Michael and Hyman Roth did up on the balcony in Havana. But as we all know, Michael’s father may have done business with Hyman Roth, and he may have respected Hyman Roth … but he never trusted Hyman Roth.

 

And we all know how that story turned out.

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Felger can be seen nightly on Comcast Sportsnet. He can be reached at mfelger@weei.com.