It is absolutely hateful to me that the NFLPA keeps taking the NFL to Court over CBA issues, and some Judge somewhere keeps granting stays. As for the NFLPA this is the classic case of buyer's remorse. The NFLPA negotiated a CBA that clearly allows Goodell to be judge, jury, and executioner in exchange for (among other things) the players having the amount of time and contact they can have with the team and in practice sessions legislated and greatly limited. Now they want the Court system to invalidate Goodell's power or they want Judges to impose a system they like better. It's not that I'm for Goodell; I think he's the worst thing to happen to pro football in my lifetime. But the issue is that of the value of a contractual agreement made in good faith by two parties. Anything about "fairness" is childish and disingenuous.
I have no doubt that with what we see today with the Anthem protests along with the NFLPA's determination to keep searching until they find a Judge that will overturn parts of the CBA that they don't like, that the next CBA is going to be very difficult to achieve. In fact, I predict a long strike or lockout, very probably with a hugely negative effect on the NFL bottom line and popularity (or lack thereof) and fans deeply and bitterly divided over supporting the players or the owners. I can easily see the return of replacement players, and of many of the minimum salary NFL players reporting to work because the millionaire players have the ability to hold out "on principle". This will, of course, cause deep division among the players.
All this is, I'm afraid, is a reflection of where we are today in society. Judges are now in the business of making law or changing law to meet their personal definition of fairness; and a contract isn't worth the paper its written on. What matters is how good your lawyers are, how much money you have to litigate, and your ability to manipulate the judicial system to judge-shop and get an activist judge to side with your particular ideal and philosophy. And, of course, what at one time was honest disagreement on societal, moral and ethical issues has become bitter division in our society. It'll be no different when the matter of a new CBA comes around. Clearly at least some of the owners really do feel that the "inmates are running the prison"; they no doubt regret how much power they gave up and so have no intention of giving up any more power to the employees (and very likely back-tracking on liberal provisions of the previously negotiated CBA). And the employees want to approach this issue as though it's a combination of trying to abolish slavery and making the NFL a union-run enterprise. These owners are so rich and powerful and egotistical that they would probably rather close their doors than give in to such an approach. But I seriously doubt that very many players would give up their careers to make a point.
Gonna get uglier. And this Elliott issue is a microcosm of the situation and no matter how it turns out, it will not be forgotten.
Enjoy your NFL football for the next 3 years; after that the NFL's future is very cloudy.
