Back in 2011, when there was a labor stoppage in the NFL, the NFL and the NFLPA agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement that most people agree was a huge win for the owners.
The current CBA runs through the 2020 season, meaning that there is the potential for another labor stoppage in 2021. Recently, NFLPA executive George Atallah did an interview on Sirius XM NFL Radio and explained how during the 2011 stoppage players hadn’t saved enough money or planned accordingly, which put the Players Association in a bad position. The NFLPA tried to help players get as prepared as possible in 2009, but that didn’t happen. The NFLPA took out a $44 million insurance policy so that if the entire season was missed each player would get $200,000, but that wasn’t enough in the minds of some players.
So what the NFLPA is trying to do once again is prepare players for a potential lockout in a few years, urging players to begin saving up money so that they are set in case of a potential labor stoppage. They’re being proactive now and trying to get players to think forward a few years.
Of course, it’s something that sounds good in theory but that will likely be much harder to get players to implement. They’re used to making big money and telling them to save more of it in case there’s a work stoppage might not go over as well with every player. Furthermore, it doesn’t account for the younger players or players not yet even in the NFL who will be in the league by 2021. An NFL player’s career is short enough as it is, so asking a player to take a year off from making big NFL money will also be hard to do. That’s why the players still seem to be at a disadvantage even if there is a work stoppage, which seems entirely possible due to the disagreements between both sides.
This really is just something to file away that hopefully won’t be necessary at all, as hopefully the NFL and NFLPA are able to reach an agreement on a new CBA before a lockout would happen. But this is something to keep in mind, as the NFLPA wants players to be preparing just in case.
And if there is a lockout that happens, as long as the Colts’ superstar quarterback isn’t dealing with an injury during the lockout to further complicate matters, things will already be better for Indianapolis than they were the last time.