More Playoffs, More Players, More Games: Such A Deal
The NFL has always thought it doesn't play by the same rules as everyone else, so it shouldn’t be a total shock that— in the midst of a global pandemic— the league announced its new collective bargaining agreement with players that will take it through 2030.
And that it intends to go ahead with its free-agent frenzy starting this week. $27 million a year QB deals as the nation struggles to get a swab that works? Okay, they are cancelling the NFL Draft in Las Vegas in deference to the Covid-19 blight. But what? Do you want them to give blood?
What the new CBA means to all of us shut-ins and self-isolators is that the season is now being stretched to 17 games by 2021 at the earliest (with just three preseason games), larger salary caps per team, 48 players dressed per game and, starting this season, two more playoff teams per conference (with a possibility of third down the road). To those who’ve seen CFL go to 18 games, it’s a small price to pay for fewer preseason games.
The Yes vote on the NFL’s proposal was razor-thin— just a 60 vote plurailty in over two thousand votes with another 500 players abstaining. But NFL players knew that when it comes to pushing work stoppages the results have always been bad and worse for them. As I document in my book Cap In Hand , the NFL Players Association has been taken to the woodshed by the NFL on numerous occasions in both strikes/ lockouts or court challenges going back to the 1950s.
Twice in the 1980s, NFLPA strikes were foiled when the union split. The 1987 labour action was defeated by the infamous Replacements episode where owners suited up scabs in NFL uniforms. The NFL further split the union by capturing the marketing rights of the league’s big stars of the era (Joe Montana, Steve Young, Barry Sanders) denying the union a large funding base for their activities.
Having been frustrated on the picket line the NFLPA took its grievances to the courts in 1992, claiming that the league’s actions represented a breach of U.S. anti-trust law. After an initial favourable decision, the union lost on appeal when judges ruled that a group governed by a CBA could not seek redress under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
So the NFLPA decertified as a union and launched a class-action suit in the name of seven stars-- including superstar DL Reggie White. The complaint sought “antitrust injunctive relief and damages stemming from various League rules, including the mandatory right of first refusal system, the standard NFL contract, and the college draft.” Most worrying for the NFL, players would be awarded treble damages if they won.
The judge hearing the case, David Doty, told the parties that unless they wanted him to impose a settlement they might not like, they had better head back to the bargaining table. That led to a 1993 CBA that finally gave NFL players what we take for granted today: the unrestricted free agency that begins this week.
Players did not get guaranteed contracts or players could be cut at any time. Owners determined the league’s revenues, which meant they could slow the growth in team payrolls. Pension and post-career health benefits were also going to be depressed under this system.
The experience left both sides bruised and happy to keep working. Till 2011 when owners, emboldened by the union’s lack of solidarity, locked out players until the eve of training camp. Owners won restrictions on rookie salaries and revenue sharing. The deal was to last till 2021.
Which brings us to the present day. With the CBA announced Sunday the NFL was clearing the decks for its next set of TV/ digital rights negotiations in which it's expected to earn $ 100 billionty dollars, or thereabout. With new buyers entering the rights market— Google, Apple, Amazon among them-- we may see NFL payments soar above those of previous deals, which set the standard for sports leagues.
Further, with the addition of playoff teams they’ll have more late-season, high-ratings playoff dates to sell, another cause for a haul. Don’t be surprised if one or more of the major pieces of the next broadcast consortium represent non-traditional broadcasters, too. Sith the NFL you just pick a number and start writing zeroes after it till Roger Goodell stops you.
So for those who've gone through their Netflix must-watch list in the first week of a quarantine, at least you'll have a small sliver of sports to consume on TV as owners and players divide the $169 million per team in next year's salary cap. Small mercies.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the publisher of Not The Public Broadcaster. He’s also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, he is also a best-selling author whose new book Cap In Hand: How Salary Caps Are Killing Pro Sports And Why The Free Market Could Save Them is now available on brucedowbigginbooks.ca.