The
NFLPA released a video on Friday "with a message of 'Save now. Fight later,'" to encourage players to make good financial decisions, according to Ben Volin of the BOSTON GLOBE. With the next CBA negotiation four years away, it was "interesting" to see the union already release a video like this "urging players to start
saving now for any potential work stoppage" (
BOSTON GLOBE, 7/23). PRO FOOTBALL TALK's Mike Florio wrote a "fundamental problem" of the
NFLPA's message is that many of the players who may be expected to go without pay in '21 have "none to save now because they’re currently playing in college or high school." Florio: "Then there’s the 'fight later' aspect of the message. Frankly, players can fight now." None of them are "required to show up for the voluntary portion of the annual offseason program." If players "can’t muster the will to collectively boycott the offseason program at some point over the next three offseasons, it’s highly unlikely that they’ll be able to launch and maintain a work stoppage after the next four football seasons" (
PROFOOTBALLTALK.com, 7/23).
GROWING INTO HIS OWN: In Seattle, Geoff Baker writes Seahawks CB Richard Sherman is "looking more and more like a future head" of the NFLPA when "speaking about topics other than himself." Sherman recently "stated that only by being willing to strike and lose money would football players match the guaranteed contracts of their MLB and NBA brethren," which is "bang-on advice a younger generation of upcoming NFL players may be more willing than ever to heed." Improving NFL players' guaranteed salary is what Sherman is "after." However, there is "only so much a union can do in 'peace time' if ownership doesn’t believe you’ll go to war." That could "lead to a more militant NFLPA membership than we’ve seen if Sherman and like-minded thinkers carry sway" (SEATTLE TIMES, 7/24).
CASE DISMISSED: In DC, Rick Maese reported a federal judge in California "dismissed the remaining claims in a wide-reaching lawsuit filed by former football players alleging NFL teams mistreated them with pain medication for years." In his order Friday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup said that the case "could not proceed because the two former players whose claims were still alive had previously sought relief through workers’ compensation claims." Alsup "dismissed the bulk of those claims in May, saying the players failed to demonstrate that their present-day medical ailments are tied to the medications they received during their playing careers" (WASHINGTON POST, 7/23).
