The NFL has had relative peace in the area of relations with the NFLPA since the implementation of free agency back in the early 1990s. However, that peace has been increasingly volatile as of late with the league and players battling it out, last in 2011.
At that time, the NFL locked its players out and only after the first preseason game of the season was cancelled did things get resolved. However, it appears the next time the collective bargaining agreement is on the table the league and its players are going to be in for a long, protracted fight.
That seems to be the message of at least Pittsburgh Steelers players rep Ramon Foster, who is telling his team’s players to start saving money now so that the players can be in a position to strike in 2021.
“Hit them in the pocket. That way, money always talks,” Foster said. “For us to do that, we have to save on our end. We can’t be just blowing money and not realize what’s coming, especially with guys coming into the league now.”
It seems as if the main issue that could be holding things up this next time around surrounds drugs.
Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell just had his four-game suspension for a third missed drug test reduced to a three-game ban, but the issues at hand seem to be more about the public nature of the handling of drug-related issues by the NFL and its arbitrary way of handling suspensions.
There are other issues, like long term health care, revenue issues, and insurance, that are also key to the players’ side of things heading in to the next round of CBA negotiations.
Don’t think the players are for real? Foster sees what the league has been doing on its end and it is clear a long fight may be in store if cooler heads and good negotiators don’t prevail.
“It’s coming. They’ve hired certain people on their legal team, the NFL has, and we have to be the type of players and union that’s not borrowing money from banks and stuff like that to survive a lockout, a strike. That can’t happen this time around. We have to be smarter this time around because there are a lot of things we’re going to be fighting for and a lot of things they are going to want and we’re going to want, too.”
The players have not gone on strike since the 1987 season, but that lasted just 24 days and the only cost was one game. It has been since 1982 since any real significant damage has been done to a season, with the players’ strike that season lasting over three months and shortening the season to just nine games.
Will that be the fate of the 2021 season? It seems impossible to fathom given the popularity and big money of the NFL today compared to in 1982, yet it appears the players are already prepping to dig in on some big issues facing the league in modern times.
Of course, there is so much that could change in the country, let alone inside the NFL, over the next five years that a strike may not be in the offing. It is interesting to see the players beginning to posture and be public about strike threats this early though.
[ESPN]
