The NFLPA is expecting to conclude their vote on the proposed CBA on Saturday, March 14. They recently elected Cleveland Browns center J.C. Tretter as president of the NFLPA. The CBA has been the talk of the league the past few weeks and with the potential for a vote of “no” looming, talks about the CBA may just be getting started. The currently proposed CBA has been approved by the owners. While the many pages of the CBA and large amounts of legal speech can make the CBA difficult to understand, here are five interesting rules in the NFL’s proposed CBA.
Interesting Rules in the NFL’s Proposed CBA:
1. Addition of a 17th Regular-Season Game:
The first rule in the CBA that is interesting is the addition of a 17th game. This game is advantageous to the owners due to the additional revenue they would receive from having another game played. This rule is advantageous for players in the fact that they would receive an additional game check on the season. The negatives to this rule are mainly on the players’ side. The game check is only one-seventeenth of their base salary. This is a very small fraction of what the players make for the other sixteen games.
Also, this game is another opportunity for players to sustain injury and put wear on their bodies. While the idea of an additional game is great for fans, the players see it as an extra opportunity to cut their careers short with a less-than-ideal amount of compensation.
2. Additional Playoff Team and Wild Card Game Per Conference:
The addition of two more playoff teams and, as a result, two more playoff games is exciting for football fans. The playoffs are often the most exciting games of football you will see. For players, it isn’t a thrilling ideal to have to potentially play 21 total games on the road to a super bowl as a number two seed compared to the current total of 19. The expanded playoff format would be great for the NFL financially, but not so much for the players. With a change as big as this, it is interesting to think about what change of this magnitude the players could potentially ask for.
3. Increased Fines and Mandatory Payments Regarding Holdouts:
Holding out for a better contract has become commonplace in recent years. Players such as Melvin Gordon, Ezekiel Elliott, and Aaron Donald are examples of players who held out for contracts with different levels of success. For Donald, he accrued $1.5 million in fines during his holdout. The Rams were forgiving of these fines for their star defensive tackle, but under the potential CBA, these fines would be mandatory. Also, the fines for holdouts would increase.
$1.5 million is already a large amount of money. The players definitely don’t want the fines to increase and they don’t want to feel like they can’t holdout for a fair deal with the potential for these fines to become mandatory. The owners would like this rule due to the idea that players would be less likely to holdout and play through their seemingly “cheap” or “unfair” deals.
4. Revenue Split of 48/52 Favoring Owners:
The revenue split under this potential CBA is a 48/52 split favoring the owners. There is a potential increase for the players based on a “kicker” involving the NFL’s upcoming deals with various media outlets. This gives the NFL the potential to work the deals in their favor to avoid triggering this kicker. Also, the split itself is interesting to consider. The NFL is an organization that survives on the performance of the players. The players would seemingly deserve the split to be as fair as possible.
A 50/50 split is seemingly reasonable for the players when you consider that they are responsible for the revenue created by the NFL. Without the players, there is no NFL. Other players do not possess the same skillset that current NFL players have. This is shown in the differences between the XFL and the NFL. At least a 49/51 split would be better for the players than the proposed 48/52 split.
5. Increased Minimum Salary With an Exception:
The last interesting rule of the potential CBA is the increase in the minimum salary. The minimum salary would increase by $180,000 for the 2020 season. This is roughly a 35 percent increase and affects more than 60 percent of players currently in the NFL. However, for entry-level players, it will take three years for them to reach these numbers. This means that players over the next three seasons will not receive the benefit of this new rule.
With the proposed CBA being a 10-year agreement, players want to see all players compensated immediately. This is why there is concern regarding the entry-level players’ salaries over the next few seasons. This is one of the more favorable additions for the players. If they can clear up the issues for the entry-level players, it would be a complete win for the players in a seemingly owner-friendly proposal.
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