Robinson said he didn't feel the new CBA gave players enough of a voicegetty images
Bears WR Allen Robinson said his biggest issue with the new CBA deal is "there were a lot of non-negotiables from the other side," according to a Q&A with Cam Ellis of NBC SPORTS CHICAGO. Robinson said, "For us, as players, when we sat in different meetings and things like that, everything that we wanted to negotiate was deemed non-negotiable." Below are excerpts from the Q&A, some of which have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: You've been a vocal critic about the new CBA. What's your biggest issue with the new deal?
Robinson: It didn't give us a chance to have much of a voice or opinion on anything. ... I tell everybody: Now that it's 17 regular season games and an extra playoff game, there will never be 16 games again. In the next CBA, I'm sure the owners will probably propose 20 games, 18 games.
Q: How closely were you following the negotiations? What was your day-to-day in regards to talking with teammates about it?
Robinson: I'm not an official team rep or an official PA rep, but for us, they would have guys from the NFLPA come in and talk to the team. Just kind of present different opinions and explain where we were at and different things to me. ... The biggest thing was when I found out that the owners wanted 17 games. The questions I was asking were, "OK, so for us, what can we possibly gain from a 17th game?" And the percentage of revenue was already non-negotiable for them. Some of the things -- like not having lifetime healthcare -- were also non-negotiable.
Q: Did you ever get a clear explanation of why they were deemed non-negotiable?
Robinson: It was just what the owners wanted. For them, in contract talks for the new CBA, 17 games was non-negotiable. Increasing the revenue north of 48.5 was non-negotiable. Not having lifetime healthcare was non-negotiable, and there were a few other things in there. So when it's all said and done for us, it wasn't much that we could talk about. ... It wasn't a true negotiation in my opinion. It was just us kind of being given something and being told, "OK, we can maybe benefit a little bit here and a little bit there," but it wasn't us truly negotiating. It wasn't us coming with a 50-50 kind of agreement (NBCSPORTSCHICAGO.com, 4/2).
