In the coming days, the NFL must sit down with its players and hammer out a new set of rules for the league, which is currently open for business but has absolutely no rules by which it can function.
The new CBA agreement will likely be incredibly player friendly. Salary caps will be put into question. Rights-retainment in the form of restricted free agency and the franchise tags could be put out to pasture. And player insurance could expand to damn near universal coverage for everything under the sun for the lifetime of a former ballplayer. The very nature of the Draft itself might change, perhaps drastically.
This is the pill the owners will have to swallow by court mandate.
Unless.
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which the NFL has said will rule on its appeal within a week, could always reverse the ruling of Nelson’s against the stay, which would re-commence the lockout. And then Nelson’s ruling in favor of the league itself would be next on the docket.
Judge Nelson has been described as pro-union, however accurate that label is, I cannot say. But the 8th is considerably friendlier to corporate interests vs. unions.
So we wait. The Draft, in the meantime, will thrill us and inspire hours of debate and conversation. But we have entered the hour where a $10 billion dollar industry dangles in limbo.
I do not believe we’ve seen this equalled in the history of American professional sports.
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