At a time when the NFL is experiencing first hand the challenges presented by a unionized work force, assistant coaches are considering forming their own bargaining unit.
According to Mike Sando of ESPN.com, the NFL Coaches Association recently informed its team representatives and the league’s head coaches of the situation.
But the NFLCA seems to be only in the early stages of exploring the possibility -- and presumably of gauging support within the ranks of the league’s assistant coaches. Ultimately, a vote would be required, and any assistant coach who aspires to be a head coach (i.e., every assistant coach) will think long and hard about voting for a union.
Currently, the pipeline from the ranks of college head coaches to the NFL has largely dried up (with the exception of Pete Carroll), due to the high-profile failures of men like Nick Saban and Steve Spurrier. If the NFL’s assistant coaches are unionized, college head coaches suddenly could be more attractive.
That said, the owners have been sticking it to the assistant coaches lately, trimming benefits and using them as pawns in the current fight with the NFLPA by inserting clauses into their contracts limiting the pay of coaches if/when there’s a work stoppage. The coaches didn’t help their cause by filing a brief opposing the NFL’s position in the American Needle case, which some fear could be parlayed by the NFL into an attempt to claim full immunity from an antitrust action that could be filed by the players following decertification of the union. (Actually, the assistant coaches could sue the NFL for antitrust right now -- but the person whose name would appear as the lead plaintiff would soon be pursuing the career path that Buddy Ryan once suggested to Kevin Gilbride.)
At this point, it appears that the coaches are in the huffing and puffing phase. It remains to be seen whether they try to blow the house down -- and whether the owners would even notice.