Pandemic may work in favor of NFL union
The NFL’s owners may be required to pay players their 2020 salaries whether they play games this season or not. That could provide extra incentive for owners to want football this fall, but it also may give the NFL Players’ Association major leverage in negotiations on what football during the coronavirus pandemic would look like — if they are able to play the games at all.
The league and union are both working hard to find a safe solution to complete the 2020 season. One of the obvious questions for some players is what will happen to their money if games are canceled or if they opt against playing due to health concerns.
And the answer is: they might still get paid.
The reason is that there is no “force majeure” provision in the new NFL/ NFLPA collective bargaining agreement nor in the league’s standard player contract that governs the current season’s salaries.
“Force majeure” is language that would provide owners relief from fulfilling their contractual obligations in the event of uncontrollable and unforeseen circumstances, typically referred to as an “act of God” (or in this case, a pandemic).
The NBA’s owners will be able to gradually reduce players’ salaries if games in the Orlando bubble need to be canceled, for example, due to the existence of a force majeure clause in pro basketball’s CBA.
There is language the NFL owners might use to launch a legal challenge if the union tries to flex its muscles and force them to pay for games not played.
Page 338 of the new CBA says a player will be paid “100% of his yearly salary under this contract in equal weekly or biweekly installments over the course of the applicable regular season, commencing with the first regular-season game played by Club in such season.”
And article 19.2 of the NFL’s constitution says regular-season games may not be postponed “unless said game cannot be played because of an Act of God or because of a state, federal or local prohibition.”
But sources do not believe this language authorizes the NFL’s owners to prorate or reduce salaries in the event that unforeseen circumstances cancel games or render them unsafe to play in a player’s eyes.
What this means practically is that the NFLPA would appear to have unique and massive leverage in their ongoing negotiations with the league on the protocols that will govern the 2020 season and on the long-term financial implications of this year’s losses.
Essentially, if the union has the protection of its players’ 2020 salaries no matter the outcome, that should help them stand their ground on not returning to play until the plans for the preseason, training camp, practices, games and testing look exactly as they want them to.
It should also give them leverage in negotiations about how to handle longterm salary-cap implications.
There were suggestions earlier this summer that the players would have to give back 2020 salaries in order to help offset long-term losses. But this is exactly the kind of issue where the NFLPA should be able to stand its ground.
Whether or not 2021 is affected dramatically, the language of the CBA would appear to state that players still would be owed their 2020 salaries.
It is impossible to discuss the NFLPA’s leverage on this issue in a vacuum. For every player under contract for the 2020 season, for example, there is a free agent who unofficially signed with his new team in March but is still waiting to complete a physical, sign officially and get paid his bonus money. Many free agents haven’t been able to do so due to coronavirus travel restrictions.
If the NFLPA were to squeeze owners on existing 2020 player salaries — with teams hemorrhaging millions this season already — the clubs in theory could threaten to not honor this spring’s unofficial free-agent agreements.
It is not clear, either, whether players’ bonus money is protected as clearly as their 2020 salaries appear to be in the CBA. The union certainly wouldn’t want to cut off its nose to spite its face.
And not every player will want to sit out or can afford to. Everyone’s situation is different.
Every season a player acquires a “credited season” toward his pension by spending at least three games on the now 55-man roster. A player also acquires an “accrued season” toward unrestricted free agency by spending at least six games on the 55.
The MMQB reported Monday that the union is pushing all players to have the chance to sit out the year if they’re uncomfortable participating with “their contracts tolling for 2020.” Tolling a contract means it gets put on hold, but not reduced or canceled.
So the NFLPA could require the owners to pay players their 2020 salaries in full but simultaneously allow the owners to delay some portion of those payments in good faith, given the immediate losses being incurred.
For now, then, “force majeure” has not taken center stage yet in any public battle ground between the union and league. Their joint priority is to collaborate on finding a safe way to complete this 2020 season.