With the NFL Players Association reviewing the voluminous comprehensive settlement, labor peace for the nation’s most popular sport is in a holding pattern.
The NFLPA did not vote Friday on the plan that the NFL owners ratified by a vote of 31-0 on Thursday.
“Player leadership is discussing the most recent written proposal with the NFL, which includes a settlement agreement, deal terms and the right process for addressing recertification,” NFLPA president Kevin Mawae said in a statement released Friday. “There will not be any further NFLPA statements [Friday] out of respect for the [New England owner Robert] Kraft family while they mourn the loss of Myra Kraft.”
So what’s the big hold up?
“We have to go through the contract and everything,” Falcons All-Pro wide receiver Roddy White said. “It might take another day or two. You can’t discuss a 450-page contract over the phone in two hours. You can’t do that. Not with 32 [union] reps.”
The NFL gave the union a Tuesday deadline to re-certify and ratify deal. The union, which would need majority approval from 1,900 players, took umbrage with the deadline.
“We aren’t going to be pressured,” White said. “They can put that deadline out there. We can only mess this whole thing up by them doing that. ‘You all need to be a union by this time, or it’s going to be no deal.’ That would just be stupid. We’d be all the way back at square one.”
The league invited four members from each team to attend a business meeting at a hotel near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Friday. They reviewed the new rules in the 10-year collective bargaining agreement for about four hours. The Falcons were represented by president Rich McKay and general manager Thomas Dimitroff.
After approving the agreement, the NFL hoped to open business Saturday. But with the NFLPA taking more time than expected to re-certify and ratify, the league reverted back to lockout mode.
“We were told that the lockout is still in place,” Denver executive vice president John Elway said. “We are still in the same place that we were.”
Under the lockout rules, league teams are not allowed to call their players or agents.
The NFLPA believes there are still more issues to resolve. The union may want to add a clause that opts out of the contract after seven years. Also, players want to know more about the supplemental revenue-sharing system and the rules on franchise and transition tags.
“The CBA is like three-fourths of the way done,” White said. “We still have a little bit more of it to go because we can’t negotiate without being a union. There is stuff that we have to negotiate to get it done.”
The owners clearly felt the deal was done.
“This is a good deal for the players, the league and the future,” McKay said. “We will have 10 years of labor peace. We can play football and won’t miss any regular season games.”
The league officials at the meeting were rather somber, but clearly itching to jump into free agency, sign their rookies and open training camps across the country.
“We are just waiting to see what happens,” Carolina general manager Marty Hurney said. “If they don’t vote [Friday], we’ll wait to see what happens [Saturday].”
White was stunned by the negative reaction from fans. One fan on Twitter wrote, “@roddywhiteTV I think y’all need to understand you already make millions playing a game. There’s people starving and y’all whining.”
White had problems with the comment.
“That doesn’t have anything to do with football players,” White said. “When people say, ‘people are starving and y’all making millions of dollars.’ Even if you are making $50,000, you aren’t trying to feed all of them. We’re making millions, [but] this is a billion-dollar industry.”
White contends that the union has a responsibility to players — past, present and future — to make sure the deal is not flawed.
“There is a lot of money that we’ve got to get going in the right direction,” White said. “We are not playing this game just for us. We are playing this game for the people who went before us and made this game what it is today and for the people who are going to be in this game in the future.”
If the union gets its work done in the one or two days that White is projecting, the NFLPA could be ready to act by Monday.
Elway, a former quarterback and a Pro Football Hall of Famer, understands the plight of the players.
“It’s that time of year,” Elway said.
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From the players’ view
Here are some of the NFLPA’s concerns with the new comprehensive settlement agreement:
The NFLPA wants to consider whether a clause that opts out of the contract after seven years is more feasible than a 10-year deal with no opt-out clause.
The NFLPA contends that it was not made a party to discussions about the supplemental revenue-sharing system.
Once re-certified as a union, they want to address the NFL’s personal-conduct policy that gives NFL commissioner Roger Goodell unfettered power to enforce fines and suspensions.
Once re-certified as a union, they want to re-visit some issues in the NFL’s drug-testing program.
