The 30-day rule may be the best leverage teams have right now against holdouts.
In a recent interview with Michael Smith of ESPN, Chris Johnson was very mindful of the rule that states he must report to the Titans at least 30 days prior to the start of the regular season or lose a year credited to free agency.
“So [Johnson] could stage a brief holdout but doesn’t want to be in more or less in the same position next year,” Smith wrote on Twitter.
Translation: The Titans know Johnson must show up by August 10, so they don’t have to worry much.
Florio wrote about the implications of the rule a few weeks back, but we doubt its significance has caught on. The New York Daily News ran a splashy column this weekend saying it made no sense for Darrelle Revis not to holdout and that he wasn’t likely to lose his nerve into late August and September.
It will take a lot more than nerve to risk losing a year towards free agency, when Revis is only entering his fourth season.