Every off-season we’re treated with at least one player threatening to call it quits on their career unless a specified set of demands are met, and this year is no exception. According to New York Daily News beat writer Ralph Vacciano, Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora is adamant that he will “stop playing football” before he consents to a backup role with the team next season.

Uh huh. No trade demand, no request for an outright release. Let’s skip right past all of that and just retire when New York’s brass say thanks but no thanks.

I’ve heard more than my fair share of trade demands from players over the years, but early retirement threats are a different story. When a player goes that far to force his current team into action, there’s almost always more to the story than what initially meets the eye. Especially when it comes from a player like Umenyiora, who has proven himself to be a talented performer at the highest level during his tenure in New York.

Granted, Umenyiora didn’t exactly light the league on fire last season, and looked lost in transition throughout much of the year. But a lot of the blame for that should be laid at the feet of the departed Bill Sheridan, who was as atrocious of a defensive coordinator last year as I’ve seen in some time.

So there has to be something more to this discussion, something of substance that would legitimately make a player that’s just now coming into his prime at 28 years old throw out fairly serious threats of retirement. There’s no doubt that if the Giants were to let Umenyiora hit the market, he’d find himself a new job in two seconds flat for a nice salary to boot.

That leaves only one answer open in my mind, and as a fan of the game, it doesn’t bode well for a continued era of prosperity in the NFL. The only reason I can see that would make a player such as Umenyiora throw out threats of this sort is that the negotiations between the league and the Player’s Association are going much, much worse than anyone currently suspects, and a work stoppage in 2011 is almost assured.

If Umenyiora truly felt comfortable with the current situation, he’d likely stay quiet this off-season, work his butt off, and earn a big time payday at the end of next season. But given the fact that the league is ready to lock out the players next year, players are doing everything they can to get their haul now, even resorting to retirement threats when need be. They don’t exactly have much to lose, given the state of negotiations at this point, and if it works, all the better for them.

Hopefully I’m wrong on this, and a labor stop doesn’t take place, as it would be crippling to a league that has risen above all others in America to dominate the sports landscape. But it’s awfully hard not to read between the lines here and see what’s likely coming down the road in the near future.  

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