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Blog covering the upcoming NFL CBA negotiations

September 9, 2009 • 8:36 am 0

Roger & You: Chatting with the Commish

Earlier today Roger Goodell waded through some of the 6,000 questions that were submitted for his pre-season chat on NFL.com.  Among the surprises, it turns out that the commissioner “can’t wait” for the beginning of the season and thinks that “its important to recognize the tradition and history of our game.”  But he take on a number of good questions concerning the CBA.  Here are the relevant answers:

Extended Schedule. When will there be less pre season games & more regular season games?

Goodell:  [A]s you may know, we have discussed restructuring our 20-game season from its current format of 4 preseason games and 16 regular-season games to possibly 18 regular-season and 2 preseason games. I’ve heard consistently from NFL fans that they don’t believe the preseason games are up to NFL standards. I agree. We are discussing changing this with our partners, including the players.

State of the CBA Negotiations. Hello,Commissioner Goodell! What can you tell me about the current labor situation and when will the players and owners meet again for negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement? Like many other big NFL fans,I hope there’s football in 2011 and beyond.Thank you very much!

Goodell: [W]e just started a formal negotiation with the NFLPA this past summer. We have a lot of work to do, but we recognize we need to get the CBA negotiated in a way that will allow our game to continue to grow.  We don’t want to stop football from being played and are hopeful that negotiations will result in bringing you more football.

Rookie Salary Cap. Commissioner, how important do you think it is to implement a rookie wage scale?

Goodell: I have been on record as saying the rookie wage scale is good for veteran players and the game. Money should go to the players who have proven their success on the NFL field. I expect this will be one of the issues that will be addressed in the CBA.

Commish’s Goals. As Commissioner, what are your top 3 business objectives for the NFL master franchise over the course of the next 5-10 years?

Goodell: Our focus will be continuing to have 32 strong teams with a new CBA that works for both players and owners and continues to grow the game. Additionally, we hope to find new and innovative ways to bring more football to our fans, including on new technology like we’re doing with the RedZone this season.

Suspensions. How do you go about deciding the length of a players suspension? What is the process that u go through[?]

Goodell: [T]his is an important part of my job, but fortunately a small part of it. The first step is to make sure you understand all the facts and provide each individual player with due process, including a full hearing. You want everyone in the NFL to understand the standards and privilege of being part of the NFL. If we engage in mistakes that reflect poorly on the NFL shield, there must be consequences consistently applied. We see positive signs that this is having an impact in reduced incidents.

End of the Salary Cap: Commissioner, could you explain what would happen in an uncapped year? Thanks.

Goodell: [T]here are a number of rules in place if we move into an uncapped year for the 2010 season. For example, eligibility for free agency would go from four years to six years, there are restrictions on the final eight playoff teams signing free agents, and each team gets an additional transitional tag along with a franchise tag. The rules during an uncapped year are designed to keep our competitive balance. The clubs are prepared for this outcome and I don’t think it will affect the quality of the game on the field.

Advice for the Commish?: There is no handbook to follow on how to be a comissioner, so what person/persons and/or things help guide you in your daily decisions?

Goodell: [Y]ou’re right — there is no handbook. You are faced with a variety of issues and challenges. My best advice is that you get all the facts by talking to a wide range of people. You can never think you have all the answers and normally your decisions will result in a number of people who disgree with you. You just try to do what you think is right for the game regardless of the consequences.

Development of Future NFL Players: With the closure of NFL Europe and the collapse of the Arena League, it seems like there is a large void in the development of players that don’t fill the immediate need of the current 53 man roster. Is the NFL looking into expanding the practice squads or developing a development league like the NBA?

Goodell: As part of our discussions on a restructured season, we have discussed offseason training, the possibility of a developmental league and additional roster positions, including practice squad. The development of players, coaches and officials will be important as we continue to grow the league.

———

It was a good chat.  Kudos to the commish for taking the time to answer the questions.  Hopefully the NFLPA will go on the record in a similar sort of chat.

Filed under: Roger Goodell, extended schedule, personal conduct policy, restricted free agency, rookie salary cap, salary cap ,

September 2, 2009 • 3:39 pm 0

Post-Vacation Blogging: Dragon Slayer

Here’s some stories I missed while at the beach:

  • CincyJungle breaks down their reasons for wanting a rookie salary cap. So does the Indianapolis Colts front office.
  • This random guy with a massive face wants a rookie salary cap, too.
  • The Charlotte Observer quotes Muhsin Muhammad expressing concerns that a longer regular season might have negative health effects on the players.
  • Good quote from the same story: Carolina linebacker Na’il Diggs called an 18-game season “a dragon we’ll have to slay when it comes.” “I’m sure it’ll be more money for television and all that, but for us, maybe not so good,” said Diggs. “It’s going to be taxing. Sixteen games is (already) a pretty good tearing up of the body.”
  • Sports Illustrated’s John Lopez wants to extend the season.
  • ProFootballTalk digs into the CBA, noting that the Broncos CANNOT send Brandon Marshall home with pay to just get him out of the locker room (following his suspension, of course) due to a rule introduced in the last CBA.
  • IDislikeYourFavoriteTeam.com is working his way through the CBA issues, too.

Filed under: extended schedule, other CBA provisions, personal conduct policy, player contracts, rookie salary cap , , , , , , ,

• 8:44 am 0

Goodell: Step Forward, Step Back

Roger Goodell spoke with Jason Reid of the Washington Post during his visit to Redskins Park.  He addressed a few issues related to the CBA.

On the negotiations:

“I think everybody in the NFL wants to play,” Goodell told reporters this morning. “The owners want to play, the players want to play. It’s our job to get a deal. It’s why I keep saying a lockout is not a strategy or an objective. What we want to do is get an agreement that works for the players, the coaches and the game, allows us to continue to grow it. There’s not a lot of rhetoric that’s needed. We need to sit down at the table and try to get those issues resolved.”

…

“Any time you’re in negotiations, you take a step forward and maybe a step back,” Goodell said. “We’re communicating, we’re trying to get information to the union leadership, make sure they understand the challenges we’re facing as a system and as a business. And make they sure they understand that so we can design a system that addresses the issues for the players, the coaches and the game.”

“When we get an outcome, I don’t know. What we’re looking for is the right outcome.”

Reid reports that Goodell is planning on meeting with NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith while he’s in Washington.

On the personal conduct policy:

“When we developed a personal conduct policy, we did it with player input. I met with well over 150 players, worked with Gene Upshaw [the NFLPA executive director who died in August 2008] to create the policy, and it was something players really wanted, for exactly the point you’re making: we’re good people; a few people are giving us a bad reputation. And I don’t think that’s right.

“I’m proud of what our players do, both on and off the field. I think we have a bunch of great guys. It’s one of the things I hear consistently from coaches and when I spend time in the locker room: these are great young men.”

I’ll note, once again, that the sports journalists are very much on Goodell’s side when it comes to the personal conduct policy.  Reid’s characterization of the policy to Goodell? “a few bad apples spoiling the bunch.”  Is that really the issue?  Isn’t it the problem of judge/jury/executioner? Goodell as the first, last, and only reviewer of this policy? There’s a process issue here.

He’s got some more quotes from the commissioner in there, too.

Filed under: Roger Goodell, extended schedule, personal conduct policy ,

August 25, 2009 • 11:04 am 1

LAT Lap Dogs: Poor Roger Goodell

Sam Farmer of the LA Times has a goofy article out today about how hard it is to be Roger Goodell.  What with his job to do, plus his additional self-imposed responsibility for tucking all the players in each night, he “must feel like punting sometimes.”  Ugh.

This is the type of crap that the union is going to have to deal with.  It’s pretty clear that most of the sports columnists are on the side of management in this one.  Look at what premise this cupcake column started with:

I called Goodell on Monday to ask whether this was really the year to take a voluntary $2-million pay cut, what with the job being more demanding now than ever.

Jesus.  Is he down to $8 million a year or did it come down from $12 million to $10 million?  Either way, atrocious journalism — even for sports journalism.

Filed under: Roger Goodell, personal conduct policy , ,

August 24, 2009 • 12:50 pm 0

Racial Profiling & Goodell

So, where does the commissioner come down on this?

[Undrafted rookie/Baltimore Ravens LB Tony] Fein was arrested and charged Sunday with assaulting a police officer.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says Fein was eating at Johnny Rockets when a security officer thought he saw him pass a handgun to a friend. It turned out to be a cell phone.

Guglielmi says that when police questioned Fein, he became belligerent and shoved the officer.

But Fein’s agent, Milton Dee Hobbs, says it was the officer who was aggressive and that Fein didn’t shove him. Hobbs says police approached Fein because he was a black man wearing a sweat suit and hoodie.

Hobbs also says Fein has never owned a weapon.

Beer summit at the NFL?

Filed under: Roger Goodell, personal conduct policy , , ,

• 9:30 am 0

Vacation Hangover Blogging: No Plax Suspension

So, this is what happens when you start working from the start of your emails, rather than from the most recent ones…turns out that Goodell has decided that Plax’s prison sentence will be adequate punishment for his transgression and will be permitted to re-enter the league upon release.

This gives us:

  • Vick (prison + six week suspension + conditional reinstatement)
  • Stallworth (prison + season-long suspension)
  • Burress (prison + no suspension)

Great work there, commish.  Really drawing that bright line…

Filed under: Roger Goodell, personal conduct policy , , ,

• 9:11 am 0

“Strong Feelings” about Personal Conduct Policy

When the NY Daily News asked DeMaurice Smith whether the NFLPA would challenge the not-quite-yet-but-probably-in-the-future arbitrary suspension that the league will impose on Plaxico Burress for shooting himself in the leg, Smith dodged the direct question, but stated that the union and the players have big problems with Commissioner Goodell’s shoot-from-the-hip policy:

“The disciplinary system is something that now that we’re forced to come to the bargaining table, it’ll be something that I’m interested in talking about,” Smith said. “Because I have very strong feelings about the way the discipline system is now. And the players have equally strong feelings.”

Asked if those feelings were that the NFL’s disciplinary system is unfair, Smith said “Just strong. They’re just strong. They’re just strong.”

So, they’re strong.  Good for you, De.

This NYDN article also has some good call-to-brotherhood quotes in what has become Smith’s standard stump speech.

Filed under: NFLPA, personal conduct policy

August 18, 2009 • 11:14 am 0

Is the NFL’s Personal Conduct Policy Even Legal?

scotusPhoto Credit: dbking

That’s the question that sports law professor and practicing attorney, Marc Edelman, attempts to address in his law review article, “Are Commissioner Suspensions Really Any Different from Illegal Group Boycotts? Analyzing Whether the NFL Personal Conduct Policy Illegally Restrains Trade,” (July 1, 2009). Catholic University Law Review, Vol. 58, 2009.

I’d encourage you to download the article (it’s free!) as it is a great primer on the NFL personal conduct policy and the application of antitrust law to the issues we’re going to be discussing here.  I’ve been planning to cover some of the cases in later posts anyway.

The answer, according to Edelman, is probably not!, the NFL’s personal conduct policy is not different from an illegal group boycott.  Because the policy was unilaterally adopted by the owners and the NFL without the consent of the NFLPA, it is not covered under the collective bargaining agreement.   Because the policy, which is a an agreement by each of the competing clubs to not hire a player (or boycotting that player), is not covered by the CBA, it escapes the non-statutory labor exemption we discussed earlier and is ripe for an antitrust challenge.

Professor Edelman finds four different ways that such a policy could pass muster under the antitrust laws:

  1. Each team could enforce a “morality clause” that it would include in each contract with each player. (This way, the teams would be acting independently, rather than colluding).
  2. Asking Congress to statutorily regulate certain “eligibility standards” for professional athletes. (Could happen, but don’t hold your breath).
  3. Lobby Congress to pass a legislative antitrust exemption for leagues to regulate player eligibility (Basically, ask Congress to kick the decisions to the leagues — best possible outcome for the league…still, don’t hold your breath).
  4. Include this type of policy in the next form of the collective bargaining agreement. (By far the most commonsense and fair option).

I enjoyed this law review article and, if you have any interest in the subject, would encourage you to read it.

Follow Marc on Twitter: @MarcEdelman

Filed under: antitrust, personal conduct policy , ,

August 17, 2009 • 3:51 pm 0

WaPo: Goodell Overbearing

Well, here’s one more take on Goodell’s use of his power as personal conduct judge.  Neil Jacobs is a lawyer and the head of the Maryland Crimindal Defense Attorney’s Association.  In the Washington Post, he essentially agrees with me and Ray Ratto that Goodell’s power is overbroad and should be reined in by the next CBA:

The players must, for their own good, and for what I believe to be the good of the league, make sure that some form of control or supervision is placed upon the commissioner’s ability to so influence not only the lives of players, but the ultimate outcome of a season.

Filed under: Roger Goodell, personal conduct policy

• 2:45 pm 0

Ratto: Define the Punishment in the CBA

Ray Rotto of CBSSports.com comes out with, what I think is, the most common sense article on how to deal with punishment, suspensions, and player conduct in the NFL:  Define the scope of the punishment in the CBA. Duh.

Actually, the scope of his powers should have already worried people, but NFL fans (well, NFL pundits, anyway) want him to be the omnipotent lawgiver, unimpeded by any considerations save his own, or that of his employers, the 32 owners who cut his biweekly checks.

These are also the people who think David Stern is a buttinsky, Bud Selig is a dodderer and Gary Bettman is Gary Bettman. Goodell, though, is the entire Supreme Court, the faculty at MIT and a Vulcan, and they’re comfortable with that.

They shouldn’t be, of course. They shouldn’t be comfortable giving that much power to anyone, ever, and the Vick reinstatement is particularly instructive of why.

Filed under: Roger Goodell, personal conduct policy

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