🌅 Unprecedented Evidence of NFL Collusion

SOURCE

Pablo Torre Finds Out

WHAT TO KNOW

• In a landmark arbitration decision, U.S. federal judge Christopher F. Droney found the NFL Management Council—the body advising team executives and owners about player contracts—gave a presentation at the March 2022 annual owners meeting encouraging teams to reduce the guaranteed money offered in veterans’ contracts. The January decision, which both the league and the NFL Players Association have kept hidden since, stems from a grievance seeking relief for 594 players who alleged they would have received more money had team owners not colluded.

WHY IT MATTERS

• Experts describe the “unprecedented” ruling as the “single biggest legal development in any American sport since 1994,” when Major League Baseball players went on strike after dealing with owners’ collusion during the 1980s. However, despite the evidence against the NFL, Droney still cleared the league of any wrongdoing. As one former lawyer turned sports journalist put it: “The league was caught with its hand in the cookie jar and with crumbs on its shirt. But because Droney didn’t actually see the league eating the cookies, he accepted as truthful their claim that they did not.”

CONNECT THE DOTS

• The March 2022 owners’ meeting took place shortly after the Cleveland Browns gave disgraced quarterback Deshaun Watson a fully guaranteed five-year $230 million deal, which the arbitration documents reveal owners feared would reset the entire market. The documents also included text messages between team owners admitting to limiting guarantees in other contract negotiations in an attempt to counter Watson’s contract and keep guaranteed money down league-wide.