Seahawks Russell Wilson comes out against proposed CBA NFL rank and file seems to support
There is a fascinating split showing among NFL players over a new collective bargaining agreement with the league.
It’s the haves against the trying-to-gets.
The top of the players’ food chain is coming out against the proposed CBA the owners approved last week. Houston’s J.J. Watt last week and, on Tuesday, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson have come out against it.
ESPN’s Rob Demovsky reported All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner, Seattle’s other franchise cornerstone, challenged the five members of the players’ union executive council who voted for the owners’ proposed CBA “to explain why they liked the deal.” That was on an NFLPA conference call Friday.
Watt, Wilson and Wagner are earning $294 million between them on their current contracts.
At the other end of the pay chain are the minimum-salary players, which make up about half the league. They are why the NFL Players’ Association announced late Monday the union’s 32 player representatives had voted 17-14 with one abstaining to send the owners’ proposed CBA to the full membership for a vote. That’s despite the fact the NFLPA’s executive council voted against it.
It takes a simple majority of all players who vote among the nearly 2,000 dues-paying NFL union members to approve a CBA. If 50 or more percent vote yes in a vote that could take place this week or next, the new CBA could go into effect before the 2020 league year begins March 18.
Here’s what’s happening: the established—that is, richer—veteran players are wondering the owners have a sudden urgency to complete this CBA agreement with a year still remaining on the existing labor deal. Those players who have already earned millions want the owners to increase the players’ current share of league revenues from 47 percent annually to closer to a 50-50 split.
They want a slice still to be determined of the league’s upcoming new television and digital contracts. Those network rights will be worth tens of billions of dollars to the league annually.
The “haves” among players also want more guaranteed salaries, like exist in Major League Baseball and the NBA. That’s what Wilson is citing.
The rank and file players that make up the bulk of the league want to take what the owners are offering now, while it exits. It’s an increase of approximately $5 billion to players during the 10 years of the new CBA.
The owners’ proposal includes:
- 47 percent of annual league revenue again in 2020, plus another $100 million in new player costs above that for this year.
- Guaranteed 48-percent share of revenue in 2021. That share would increase to 48.5 percent in any season the league plays 17 regular-season games, which is a key part of the proposed CBA
- A $100,000 increase in rookie minimum salaries in 2020, increasing again by $50,000 in 2021 then by $45,000 each year after that
- A $90,000 increase this year for other minimum-salary players, a bump of $80,000-105,000 in 2021, then by $45,000 each year after that
- Raises for practice-squad players to $10,500 per week
- Increasing practice squads from 12 to 14 players, with two spots for any player regardless of accrued seasons
- Increase in pay for all offseason activities
- Contract escalator clauses for second-round picks
Under the current CBA the minimum salary is set to be $510,000 in 2020. The current CBA calls for minimum salaries to increase by $15,000 each year. The owners’ proposed CBA would at least triple that annual increase.
That’s change in the couch cushions to stars like Watt and Wilson.
But it’s real money and progress for the rank and file player. It’s apparently what he wants and will take now. That’s why the league’s player reps voted to approve it on to a full player vote.
It’s a fight between those who have already made it and those trying to get there in a league with the lowest shelf life in sports.
We are about to see who wins.
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 8:37 AM.
