Winston, who last played for the Bengals, wants fans to empathize with players' issues at the league levelGETTY IMAGES
NFLPA President Eric Winston is helping the union "gear up for a gathering holy war with ownership" regarding a new CBA when the current deal expires in '21, according to Devin Gordon of the N.Y. TIMES. Winston represents the "largest union of its kind," and he is "pitted against dozens of the richest, most secretive, best-organized people in American business." Players have "made significant headway" on the issue of guaranteed contracts over the course of the current CBA, as 386 players "now have their contracts fully guaranteed and 300 more have nearly full guarantees." While it is "nowhere close" to the NBA having 100% of contracts guaranteed, it is a "marked improvement over 2011, when only top-tier quarterbacks could pull off such a demand." For Winston, one of the "keys to setting up a win in 2021 is making the case in public today that most NFL players are getting a raw deal." He knows "what most fans think: that pro athletes get to play a game for a living, and how dare they whine about that?" He knows he "needs to persuade fans to see pro athletes the way he does: as employees who go to work every day just like the rest of us, with crummy bosses and substandard workplaces and a power imbalance between labor and management." What frustrates Winston is that, "to fans, NFL labor disputes are seen as a greedy fight between two comparably rich sides over who gets more of the pie -- and that historically, the league has swayed most fans to side with owners in the name of team spirit" (N.Y. TIMES, 11/16).
CARRYING THE TORCH: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Andrew Beaton wrote if Colin Kaepernick has "been the face" of the players’ demonstrations during the national anthem, Panthers S Eric Reid has "lingered as the enduring voice of the movement -- even as the fervor surrounding the topic has subsided after two tumultuous seasons." This season, the players’ demonstrations "have become more muted" as only a "handful of players across the league have continued to either take a knee or raise a fist during the national anthem to call attention to issues such as police brutality." Reid has "stood out as the steadfast and outspoken critic." He has "launched barbs not just at owners, but also players he disagrees with." Reid said that the Panthers "haven’t asked him to tone down his commentary -- and that if they did, he wouldn’t" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 11/14).
