NFL players should say no to 17th game

How much brain damage is more football worth? NFL players are not stupid, although the same franchise owners that treat players more like sides of Wagyu beef rather than full partners in America’s most lucrative sports league are now trying to give them the bum’s rush to push through a new collective bargaining agreement, all in the name of more football!

The proposed deal, sent Thursday for ratification or rejection by players, has been loudly – and sometimes profanely – opposed by NFL stars from both sides of the line of scrimmage, from Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson to longtime Broncos defensive lineman Derek Wolfe.

“That’s an absolute NO from me on the new CBA,” Wolfe declared on social media. “(Bleep) deal.”

But we all want more football, right? Who says no to a 17th regular-season game and more playoff action on the NFL schedule? Not you. Not me. And certainly not Jerry Jones, Stan Kroenke or the Bowlen family, who all stand to make billions of dollars from en

hanced television deals and the bonanza of legalized gambling.

More football. More money. More fun for everyone. What’s not to like?

“One more regular-season game and less preseason football. It (darn) sure is a benefit to fans,” said Jack Mills, whose well-established agency in Boulder has represented NFL players great and small for decades. “I think the CBA is going to pass, because my general sense is the rank-and-file players at lower-income levels are going to be happy with better salaries and long-term benefits.”

I think Mills is absolutely right. Why? We’re all suckers for money. Get this: Under proposed terms of this agreement, the NFL minimum wage would increase to $1.06 million per season by 2030. Good gravy. That sounds pretty sweet to any working stiff that teaches algebra or drives a beer truck for a living.

“These athletes act as if playing a game we all played as kids is doing something special,” Broncos fan Victor Lopez said. “They should be happy there’s a league out there that gives them an opportunity to make millions of dollars.”

But there must be a reason marquee players from Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers to veteran Broncos cornerback Chris Harris Jr. are adamantly opposed to the deal. And I think it is way more complicated than greed.

Players can trust franchise owners about as far as Houston defender J.J. Watt can throw a billionaire. History shows management would rather exploit than do right by the athletes putting their bodies on the line every time they take the field.

Unlike Nolan Arenado or Mike Trout in Major League Baseball, football superstars who make the NFL a national obsession are not treated with the respect of fully guaranteed contracts.

Unlike LeBron James and his brethren in the NBA, football players are being asked to take less than a 50/50 split from a bounty of TV revenue so ridiculous that retired quarterback Tony Romo can be paid $17 million per year merely to yak about the game. And tell me how much the newfound riches raked in by Robert Kraft from widespread legalized gambling are going to be worth?

Worst of all, at least in my mind, is NFL owners seem to be in a big rush for players to trade the increased physical liability of a 17th regular-season game for money, as if the risk of brain damage or long-term physical disability is just another chip on the bargaining table.

“Gotta vote no on that CBA,” Harris shouted into the Twitterverse.

Amen, brother.

The CBA requires only a simple majority to pass, and owners seem to be employing a divide-and-conquer approach, appealing to the desperation of lower-income players for a quick buck, pitting punt-returners and second-string linebackers against established Pro Bowlers who can afford to take the long view while playing the long game.

“Both sides of this negotiation need labor peace,” Mills said. “The players and owners both know that a strike or lockout doesn’t work in the NFL.”

So let’s do a deal that not only makes money, but sense. We love the NFL to death. But how much football is too much? A smart athlete knows everything is negotiable, except his health.