Earlier this month, the NFLPA rolled out the “25/25 Campaign,” aimed at persuading players to set aside 25 percent of their net income in 2009 and 2010 in preparation for a lockout in 2011.
(Apparently, Chad Ochocinco didn’t get the memo, unless he plans to live in the back seat of his new car.)
A source told our own Aaron Wilson earlier today that the union recently sent a questionnaire to all NFLPA-certified financial advisors regarding their efforts to prepare players for the possibility of one or more weeks in 2011 without game checks.
Topics include whether the advisor has spoken to his or her clients about a possible lockout, and the steps the advisor is taking to prepare the clients for a sudden, dramatic drop in their primary income.
On one hand, this can be seen as further evidence that the union is calling the owners’ possible bluff as to a work stoppage. With the debt that many of these teams now have, we simply can’t imagine the league voluntarily shutting off the revenue faucet.
On the other hand, prudent planning can’t hurt. If enough players are having financial trouble come 2011 because they didn’t save enough money in 2009 and 2010, the players collectively will be more inclined to cave in the face of a lockout -- like they did only three weeks after they went out on strike in 1987.
Though the union has a multi-multi-million-dollar strike fund, the money will go fairly quickly, given the sizes of the mortgage payments these guys make. The key is to get them to quit spending $135,000 on earrings (like T.O. supposedly did in the first episode of his unreality show) or otherwise pissing away money on stuff they don’t need.