When the NFL owners were coming together to discuss their offer for a new collective bargaining agreement with players, there was basically no real news coming out of the deal. We didn’t hear about any owners disagreeing with the process. We barely …
When the NFL owners were coming together to discuss their offer for a new collective bargaining agreement with players, there was basically no real news coming out of the deal. We didn’t hear about any owners disagreeing with the process. We barely heard what would be in the deal by the time NFLPA leadership got a chance to take a look. It was a united front. As the deadline for the NFLPA to either ratify or decline the CBA offer, the exact opposite is happening with players. Things are getting contentious and frankly, things are getting a bit weird.
It was always going to be harder to show a united front for the players than it would be for the owners. There are 32 people who own NFL teams. There are almost 2000 voting members in the NFLPA. It’s obviously harder to get thousands of people to agree than it is 32. The real problems started where they often do during this period of time: social media.
Star players immediately — and loudly — came out against the CBA on Twitter. Russell Wilson made his opinion known. J.J. Watt said no. The Pouncey twins tweeted out videos using explicit language. It looked like the biggest names in football were using their social media to influence people’s point of view. It makes things for lower-paid players who were going to vote yes when the most powerful players on the team and in the sport of football are voting no and being very loud and public about it. Essentially players were negotiating with their own union members using social media. It’s not great.
Things moved on though, and think pieces were written. Maybe the deal was a good deal for the NFLPA since most of its union membership would actually benefit — even if established veterans and high paid players weren’t getting as much in return. It looked like there would be a vote and a normal procedure would be followed. Which brings us to today.
See, today Russel Okung — who is running for new NFLPA president to replace Eric Winston — decided that he wanted to file an unfair labor practice law and accused the NFLPA of negotiating in bad faith. Yes, the next president of the union is so angry at the current CBA, that he filed a complaint. That’s not great, especially if the labor deal goes through. That’s not where the weirdness stops.
Sam Acho — who also wants to be president of the NFLPA — ended up posting this video in favor of the deal.
Essentially negotiations between the players are going on through social media. It’s not on phone calls, video conferences or meetings. It’s on Twitter. That isn’t professional and it simply doesn’t give the impression that players are going at this in a united manner.
Let’s top it off though. Reportedly, some players now want to change their votes. We don’t know which way they want to change their votes, but they aren’t going to be allowed to do so. The problem with this is the players should have been getting educated before voting. They should have talked to their agents, family, friends, teammates, union members, and business advisors long before voting yes or no. Who got to the players that made them want to change their vote? We will probably never know.
That’s where we are. The good news is we will know by Saturday whether we have a deal or not. Then we will move back to free agency and trying to figure out if Tom Brady is going to sign with every team in the league.
