NFL owners have voted to approve their proposal for a new collective-bargaining agreement, leaving it all up to the NFL Players’ Association to decide if the new CBA will go into effect. However, if the reaction from the NFL world is any indication to part of the CBA proposal, fans shouldn’t get their hopes up for labor peace.
According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the addition of a 17th game into the NFL season would also result in many star players getting paid less for their work. While a 17-game season might not into effect until at least 2022, NFL players would receive significantly less for that 17th game than they receive in each of the first 16 contests.
Any player who signed a contract based on the current 16-game schedule, which would be every NFL player until at least 2021, would see their game salary capped at $250,000 in the new CBA.
For many of the game’s star players, like Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Carson Wentz, that would result in a dramatic reduction in their pay. NFL players were already against adding a 17th game to the season, fearing the added risk to their long-term health, this only makes the idea even less appealing.
It didn’t take long before the NFL world jumped on the new pay structure and quickly took turns blasting the league and its owners for their wild act of greed with a proposal that hurts players even more.
As you might expect, some of the game’s top stars didn’t take too kindly to the proposal. Given how much support is needed from the NFL Players’ Association to get the new CBA ratified, early reactions from across that league make an agreement seem increasingly unlikely.