[SBXVII]

As the NFLPA’s annual meeting of player representatives takes place this week in Marco Island, Fla., followed by the NFL owners meetings in Palm Beach, Fla., next week, one issue both sides must address is what appears to be an obvious case of collusion on the part of the league.

In essence, the NFLPA had to weigh the option of keeping the salary cap high for now against the idea of accepting collusion.


NFL spokesman Greg Aiello and NFLPA spokesman George Atallah both declined to discuss the matter. However, sources on both sides say the union agreed to the penalties because it had little choice.

“What the league is doing is collusion, plain and simple.”

This goes against everything that we negotiated for in [the past]” a player said, referring to the previous CBA and subsequent extensions. “The owners were supposed to live with the realities of the uncapped season. That was supposed to make them afraid to go uncapped. Now, they’re telling the big spenders, ‘You were really bad boys, we’re going to punish you.’ What the [expletive]? What kind of fear are they going to have in the future?”


The best analogy: If you were trying to sell something at auction and were told just before the sale that the top two spenders in the room had been barred from bidding, you might be pretty upset.

Furthermore, sources questioned why teams that didn’t spend weren’t penalized by the league.

Couldn’t you argue that teams that saved all this money by not spending are helping themselves out artificially by saving room to spend later?” the agent said. “The only teams being punished are the big spenders and that’s because the league wants to hold down salaries.”

The Redskins did nothing wrong. All they did was spend money,” the union source said.

“But nobody is really getting an explanation on this stuff. You have collusion going on over here and they’re manipulating the salary cap over there. There’s a bunch of stuff going on and you don’t know if it’s good negotiating or if people trying to cover their butts. All I know is, the precedent really bothers me.”

I hope the NFLPA decides to do something after all. Might atleast make Smith look bad and put the League on notice.