CBAgate

[primetime]

The players won't be able to -successfully- insist on anything. Too many of them have such short, and not particularly well paid (and at the other end players numbers approaching or exceeding 1 million a game) for a walkout to work.

Right, you'd need infrastructure like a strike fund, and it would mean the higher-paid members of the union subsidizing the lower-paid ones for as long as the strike drags on.

I can't imagine that happening; the gap between rich and poor in the NFLPA is monumentally large and simply a problem no other labor union has had to deal with in history. Labor aristocracy in your average industrial union is a senior technician nearing retirement with a six figure salary, with a new employee making maybe a third of that. In the NFLPA it's a 26 year old making eight figures on his second contract, with an average new employee making less than a twentieth of that.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Right, you'd need infrastructure like a strike fund, and it would mean the higher-paid members of the union subsidizing the lower-paid ones for as long as the strike drags on.

I can't imagine that happening; the gap between rich and poor in the NFLPA is monumentally large and simply a problem no other labor union has had to deal with in history. Labor aristocracy in your average industrial union is a senior technician nearing retirement with a six figure salary, with a new employee making maybe a third of that. In the NFLPA it's a 26 year old making eight figures on his second contract, with an average new employee making less than a twentieth of that.

Yeah, pretty much - the only way the players can go into a CBA with real leverage is if they spend years preparing and stashing money away against an eventual lockout. But that won't happen, because it would require the players to act collectively and intelligently, which I've never seen any of the major sports unions do.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

what the hell is "capricious"? haha

That's college boy talk for "****ed up"

Holy crap, pony tail guy looks absolutely macho now that kids have curlicue beards and man buns.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

The players should insist on their ability to take cases to an administrative judge rather than have an arbitrator's decision be binding. I mean, this is the worst of every world, as the league decides on the arbitrator unilaterally under the current contract, but labor shouldn't be signing over its ability to go to court, either.

Binding arbitration is fine, as long as you've got a neutral arbitrator.

How that part of the deal includes league* employees is beyond me. It's like if the shoe were on the other foot, and Ray Rice was the arbitrator in the Ezekiel Eliot case.

In the case of lawsofnaturegate, you can't hire guys, tell them what the answer is, and claim to have conducted an impartial 3rd-party investigation. And you can't have league propaganda on the case beamed out through their own network(s) about what the answer is before the investigation even starts. And you sure can't tell them to flip-flop the meaning of pieces of evidence based on what "must" have been the case, given the pre-ordained answer.

I mean, just for example.

So that's how it comes up: Being really bad at his job might be Goodell's way of making it really valuable to the players to make concessions to secure a different discipline process.

 

[Thelonious]

I'm for a world in which individuals and businesses and groups and clubs and schools and so on are free to hire, fire, associate with - or not - for any reason whatsoever whomever they wish. The price of a world more "fair" or "equitable" than this is inevitably a creeping loss of freedom, a metastatic growth of "enforcement mechanisms," and ultimately tyranny, however pleasingly disguised or welcomed by those too weak to live in a world actually free.

As for the NFL. I am a fan. If the NFL fields rosters of players who are such despicable people that I can't abide rooting for them - and they are headed there, though not there yet - I won't be a fan any more, and the players can knock themselves permanently batty for their own amusement. I won't care, certainly, nor am I obligated to, this being, so far, a free country, after all.

 

[Thelonious]

I'm for a world in which individuals and businesses and groups and clubs and schools and so on are free to hire, fire, associate with - or not - for any reason whatsoever whomever they wish. The price of a world more "fair" or "equitable" than this is inevitably a creeping loss of freedom, a metastatic growth of "enforcement mechanisms," and ultimately tyranny, however pleasingly disguised or welcomed by those too weak to live in a world actually free.

As for the NFL. I am a fan. If the NFL fields rosters of players who are such despicable people that I can't abide rooting for them - and they are headed there, though not there yet - I won't be a fan any more, and the players can knock themselves permanently batty for their own amusement. I won't care, certainly, nor am I obligated to, this being, so far, a free country, after all.

Say, that was my 500th post. I'm good with that.

 

[Gumby]

Re: OP thesis that GotoHell deliberately chose to abuse the traditional Article 46 powers in the 2014-16 . . . timeframe in order to monetize negotiating that away in 2019-20

1. Methinks you give Gotohell WAY WAY TOO much credit for forethought, planning and intelligence (to think 5-6 years ahead) and seriously underestimate his basic stupidity, pettiness, and prejudices. In short, no farking way was it preplanned.

2. You correctly ascribe the NYJFL's level of greed and lack of concern for the game/industry, however, Meaning that they would be all over that monetization scheme whenever they get so far as to actually negotiating a new CBA.

2a. It would be in the games best interest to take that authority (opportunity for mischief/mistakes) from the Ommisioner, but I guarantee the NYJFL will fight it tooth and nail and only give it up for a big win (which no one will offer-2b).

2b. The nflpa is not any better and unless tb12 takes a leading role, they will be more interested in the highest % of tv revenue for the cap (to benefit all (?)), than protecting the 5 guys a year dorked over by the Ommissioner.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Re: OP thesis that GotoHell deliberately chose to abuse the traditional Article 46 powers in the 2014-16 . . . timeframe in order to monetize negotiating that away in 2019-20

1. Methinks you give Gotohell WAY WAY TOO much credit for forethought, planning and intelligence (to think 5-6 years ahead) and seriously underestimate his basic stupidity, pettiness, and prejudices. In short, no farking way was it preplanned.

2. You correctly ascribe the NYJFL's level of greed and lack of concern for the game/industry, however, Meaning that they would be all over that monetization scheme whenever they get so far as to actually negotiating a new CBA.

2a. It would be in the games best interest to take that authority (opportunity for mischief/mistakes) from the Ommisioner, but I guarantee the NYJFL will fight it tooth and nail and only give it up for a big win (which no one will offer-2b).

2b. The nflpa is not any better and unless tb12 takes a leading role, they will be more interested in the highest % of tv revenue for the cap (to benefit all (?)), than protecting the 5 guys a year dorked over by the Ommissioner.

Frankly, I think 2b, above, is the answer. To wit... even if we grant that Goodell is an evil genius capable of thinking years ahead - although in fact he might be incapable of remembering to bring a rock down to the river to bash open clams on his tummy - this forethought would need to include an NFL*PA that will trade away revenue for rights once the screws are tightened. So you'd have to figure that this is a big hole in the tinfoil hat theory that he's being bad at his job for evil genius reasons.

But I call Conspiracy Win if the players trade away a point or two of revenue, f'rinstance, for the NFL* to farm out discipline to some new, more independent body.

 

[Jackson 2]

Yeah, pretty much - the only way the players can go into a CBA with real leverage is if they spend years preparing and stashing money away against an eventual lockout. But that won't happen, because it would require the players to act collectively and intelligently, which I've never seen any of the major sports unions do.

Except baseball in 1994. The union kicked ass.

 

[DarrylS]

Once an article like #46 in a contract has stood the test of time it becomes difficult to modify or change, and is usually known as "boilerplate" language in any negotiations..

Whether the players and their organization, NFLPA sold their souls is debatable, the issue is how Goodell has implemented this article.. Goodell is doling out his form of justice and has received backing of the Courts..

If during the next negotiations the NFLPA wants to have it changed it will require some major concession on their part to make it different, if the NFL comes in with more money available, then not much else might change and things will remain the same.. for most rank and file it comes down to money, taking a risk with Goodell and his successor is something they will consider.