Report: NFLPA wouldn’t provide consent to move league year

Posted by Charean Williams on March 15, 2020, 7:28 PM EDT
Getty Images

The NFL couldn’t change the league calendar on its own. It needed the approval of the Players Association.

The sides discussed the matter Sunday after the NFPA announced it had approved the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Free agency will proceed as scheduled despite the COVID-19 pandemic, as previously reported. The reason? The NFLPA would not provide consent to move the league year, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports.

“NFLPA says: No one is traveling anyway,” Schefter wrote on social media. “It’s not football activity; it’s deals. Everyone is working remotely. Let’s do our business remotely. And this could get worse before it gets better. So do it now.”

That’s what PFT speculated earlier today that the decision was made to proceed possibly in part because things could get worse two or four or six or even eight weeks from now. So a delay could push the entire schedule back with no end in sight to delays.

Thus, the negotiating window opens at noon ET on Monday with the official start of free agency at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

Permalink 14 Comments Feed for comments Back to top

14 responses to “Report: NFLPA wouldn’t provide consent to move league year”

  1. Actually what PFT speculated earlier is that the NFL is tone deaf, nothing to do with things getting worse before getting better.

  4. The new CBA passed today by a vote of 1019 to 959. This proves that what I posted earlier today is true — it wasn’t just the 20% PFT said it was who were against this contract.
    I think it’s one of the stupidest deals the players could have agreed to. And I also think the NFL’s new stance on drugs was a huge factor in it passing. We all know the majority of these players use marijuana and other drugs.
    Going to 17 games shows me that neither the NFL nor the players themselves care about the health aspects of the NFL, just as I said. All they care about is the money. If the owners offered them more money to play with razor blades sticking out of their helmets, the players would take it.
    I officially don’t want to hear anything more from the players about injuries. Shut up and play the game or quit. You and your fellow players accepted this extra game and you accept playing games in other countries, too, so just shut up and play the game. In 10 or 20 years, I won’t shed any tears for any of you when you are physically broken down or even dead, either. It’s your choice and when you had a chance to say enough is enough, you didn’t take it. Take your millions and understand that it’s all on you.

  5. PFT was actually Somewhat predicting it would move back……..taking credit as if you had it pegged all along seems weird.

  6. nyneal:

    What leverage is it you think the players have? If they initiate a stoppage, the owners crush them. So all they can do is get the best deal they can; the owners don’t want to go to the expense and bother of crushing them, but if they have to they will. This is what Florio has been on about–the players have almost no bargaining chips to play. You’re screaming at the powerless.

  7. players want those deals inked now with signing bonuses because if it gets worse then they’ll have that money in the bank.

  11. OPTICS? Never saw that word used in the context as used here… now everyone wants to appear scholarly and boast of literary attainments, and use it at every occasion.

  12. I honestly never understand what the big reason for delaying it was. 90% of these deals are done without even meeting face to face. Yes, you have to do a physical but that’s one on one with a team doctor. You can skip the press conferences but other than that I don’t get the risk

  13. Here is but just one more in a long list of PFT articles that demonstrate why I always and only trust PFT for all my news.

  14. Isn’t the start of the league year conducted largely via phone and email? Why does it need to be postponed?

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to leave a comment. Not a member? Register now!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.