Getty Image / Andy Lyons
Labor relations are always tenuous in sports. After all, the side of the owners and the side of the players have very different goals. Those opposing goals are very evident in the NFL between the league and the NFLPA, where labor relations are often fraught with controversy.
It’s a tough sport to have a good player’s union, because the average player only plays for a few years. So, most of the work is done on behalf of them, instead of veterans. The owners take advantage of this in negotiations. This is just one reason why sports like MLB and NBA have fully guaranteed contracts and the NFL does not.
Recently, we have seen quarterbacks get some insane guaranteed money by NFL standards. Quarterbacks like Dak Prescott, Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson have all seen massive contracts.
And now, there are accusations clubs are making sure that doesn’t happen.
The NFLPA is alleging that the NFL is colluding against guaranteed contracts for quarterbacks
News broke Tuesday that there was a collusion claim filed against the NFL.
Some news: Per an NFL memo sent to club execs, the NFLPA has filed a collusion claim, arguing that NFL owners are colluding to prevent fully-guaranteed contracts, since no QB has gotten one since Deshaun Watson. https://t.co/P7NT9kyJj9
— Kalyn Kahler (@kalynkahler) November 22, 2022
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The article said, in part:
“Per a memo dated Oct. 20, 2022, sent from the league’s general counsel Jeff Pash to club owners, presidents, general managers and counsel, the NFLPA filed a claim alleging that teams and the league have colluded to prevent clubs from offering players fully guaranteed contracts. One club executive sent the memo to The Athletic and another executive with a different team confirmed that he had also received the same memo.
The NFLPA declined to comment.
The league memo quotes from the NFLPA’s pleading, which The Athletic did not view, and says the NFLPA argues that “(t)he expectation was that fully-guaranteed contracts would now become the competition driven norm for the top players in the League, including quarterbacks, negotiating new contracts.”
The memo says that the NFLPA alleges that “before, during and after” the Aug. 9 ownership meeting in Minneapolis, when the owners met to approve the Denver Broncos sale, “NFL owners and/or League executives discussed not agreeing to any additional player contracts with fully-guaranteed salaries.”
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Both sides have declined comment.