There’s been a bunch of news on the CBA front since I’ve last posted, but I’ve been a little busy. But in this quick post, I want to highlight a troubling development that I’m sure you’ve seen if you watched the games this weekend: the commissioner’s office is punishing those owners who speak to the media in way that it disapproves.
Without confirming a six-figure fine by the NFL, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones did confirm Sunday that commissioner Roger Goodell frowned upon Jones breaking the league’s gag order 10 days ago when he said the league’s revenue-sharing era is on life support.
Jones’ reaction to league’s reaction? “So be it.”
“The league and I won’t be confirming that [the fine] one way or the other,” Jones said. “My comments were to help out Minnesota in such a way to get some energy up there to possibly get some help on building a stadium. So, the fact that that type of subject matter can get over into the labor thing shows how they’re intertwined. So if I crossed the line, so be it.”
Before the Cowboys’ preseason finale at Minnesota on Sept. 4, Jones spoke to a Minneapolis reporter about the need for public support of a new stadium there and said, “Right now, we are subsidizing this market. It’s unthinkable to think that the market you’ve got here, with 3.5 million people, and have teams like Kansas City and Green Bay subsidizing this market. That will stop. That’s going to stop. That’s called revenue sharing. That’s on its way out
Owners and team executives are under a gag order from discussion pending labor issues. The league’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires in 2010, and revenue sharing is a contentious issue among owners.
You’ll note that no other owner who has spoken to the media about the CBA process or NFL business issues has been fined — it’s because they’ve been towing the party line. I think those journalists with access should be chipping away at this fault line to get to the heart of the matter.
Also, this punishment clearly shows (as if it wasn’t already apparent), that decertification by the union could bring the league a major antitrust headache.
Filed under: Roger Goodell, antitrust
