When it comes to NFL-related journalism, 98 percent of the reporting isn’t really journalism. It’s stuff we’re going to find out anyway, stuff they want us to know. Often, it’s a spoon-fed, gift-wrapped, five-minute head’s-up from team or agent before a contract, trade, etc. is announced.
The other two percent comes from finding out things they don’t want us to know.
Currently, they don’t want us to know what happened with the NFL Players Association’s collusion grievance regarding fully-guaranteed contracts for certain veteran quarterbacks.
The case was resolved last week, with a 61-page written ruling from an arbitrator.
No one will say anything about it. The NFL cites the confidentiality order that applied to the arbitration. But that doesn’t prevent either party from publicizing the outcome of the arbitration; it merely insulates the process from external scrutiny.
Still, the league and the union are choosing to conceal the outcome, even though they don’t have to.
So here’s what we’ve found out so far, as it relates to this thing they don’t want us to know about.
Per multiple sources, the arbitrator found that the NFL encouraged teams not to do guaranteed contracts. However, the evidence presented regarding the impact of this approach on the three quarterbacks at the heart of the case — Lamar Jackson, Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray — wasn’t strong enough to trigger damages.
It’s a lot like the end result of the Sunday Ticket antitrust case. The NFL lost on liability, but ultimately won on damages.
The mixed result gives both sides a reason to crow, but also a reason to clam up. The union proved collusive behavior. The NFL proved that there were no damages.
Hovering over the entire process is the league’s effort to get the NFLPA to agree to 18 regular-season games. The NFL isn’t taking a victory lap on something relatively obscure now in the hopes of taking a victory lap on something much more important later.
Eighteen games. Nineteen weekends of regular season action. More football. More money.
