Allen Robinson and other players have every right to be angry with the NFL’s new CBA

It feels like the players caved to all of the NFL’s demands.

As the NFLPA voted to approve the NFL’s proposed collective bargaining agreement on Sunday, Chicago Bears receiver Allen Robinson was the most outspoken player on social media, where he expressed discontent with the new deal, which will be in place through 2031.

His first reaction to the new deal? “Trash, freaking trash.”

It’s easy to see why he doesn’t like the deal. Let’s start with the money. The salary cap is going up in 2020, which is good for NFL free agents. But the increase in the cap is the smallest since 2013. Not great, Bob. But that’s just microeconomics, right? It must look better on a macro-scale. Well, that is also not great (Bob). The players managed to get just 48% to 48.8% of the NFL’s revenue. That’s an unimpressive number, considering it falls short of the NBA (49%-51%), the NHL (50%) and MLB (roughly 50%). A percentage point makes a tremendous difference when dealing with $8.1 billion, the NFL’s revenue in 2018.

Interestingly, Robinson suggested the players voted out of fear. He might be referring to the players’ inability to use their leverage in negotiations for fear of losing income during a lockout. And that’s fair. Many of the replacement-level players don’t have the same level of income and savings, like Robinson, who has earned $16.5 million during his career. So they have to operate out of fear of lost income. But a player like Colts tight end Eric Ebron seemed peeved about a lost opportunity due to that fear of lost income.

As a part of the new agreement, the NFL regular season will expand from 16 to 17 games. The playoffs will also include two more teams (by allowing just one team to have a first-round bye). As a response to this expansion — which will take effect in 2021 at earliest — the NFL will expand rosters from 53 to 55 players. Practice squads will get bigger, too. Still, there is a maximum payment ($250,000) for the 17th game, which pales in comparison to what some players make. Robinson, for example, makes $681,000 per game in 2020. Quarterback Kirk Cousins, who currently has the highest salary in the NFL, makes $1.8 million per game in 2020. Those figures will only increase when the NFL enacts this expanded regular season and playoff schedule.

But even with massive salaries — which the owners agreed to pay — Cousins and Robinson would still make just $250,000 for a game, a performance which is arguably worth more than the previous 16 games, because it’s that much more physically demanding to prepare for. And the NFL schedule, which emphasizes earning the No. 1 seed in the playoff structure, will create more meaningful games in Week 18. That 17th game could come with a playoff-like atmosphere, which always seems to amp up physicality, bringing more intensity when players are likely to be most injured and most tired.

Not only is the NFL forcing players to play an extra game — which seems like an exhibit of flagrant disregard for player safety at a time when the NFL claims that’s a priority — but the owners are apparently unwilling to compensate all of their players properly for that extra game. Imagine if a player suffered a career altering concussion or knee injury in that 17th game — but received a game check which was below what he and the team had previously agreed to. It’s ridiculous. That must have been why some players were so angry after the news of the CBA agreement.

Entering these negotiations, the NFL clearly inundated the NFLPA with requests for pro-owner changes, and the NFLPA couldn’t properly counter. The biggest win for players might have been the slackening of the league’s drug policy. The NFL will be testing fewer players and reducing the penalties for a positive test.

Still, the NFL tends to test its players for recreational drugs at the same time every year. If a player abstains in the month leading up to that regularly-scheduled drug test, they are generally fine for another 11 months. There was already an easy work-around. Maybe this rule change is a win for the players. But it’s hardly significant in comparison to the owners’ wins.

It’s not an impressive deal for the players. It feels like the owners proposed a schedule and financial situation that suits them. And the players were unwilling and unable to counter to get fair compensation. They caved to the demands of the owners.

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