![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.profootballrumors.com\/files\/2025\/07\/USATSI_22465652-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>The NFLPA had filed a grievance years earlier alleging that teams worked together to stop a push for fully guaranteed contracts after the Deshaun Watson<\/a> deal. The grievance went through the league\u2019s arbitration process, which eventually resulted in a ruling against the union that was initially kept under wraps. It became public in June 2025, contributing to the storm of scandal surrounding the NFLPA at the time.<\/p>\nThe union filed an appeal, but a three-person panel upheld the arbitrator\u2019s original ruling in favor of the NFL, per Pro Football Talk\u2019s Mike Florio<\/a>. This includes the finding that the league encouraged clubs to collude to suppress fully guaranteed contracts, which supports the NFLPA\u2019s case. However, the appeals panel also agreed with the arbitrator that there was not sufficient evidence to show that teams actually participated in the alleged collusion.<\/p>\n In short, while the NFL attempted to collude as alleged, the union could not demonstrate a strong enough impact to trigger damages and a ruling in their favor. The appeals panel concurred with that result.<\/p>\n One key difference, Florio notes, is that the appeals panel believes that teams were aware of the league\u2019s collusive intentions.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot fathom these sophisticated businesspeople did not comprehend they were being encouraged to limit or reduce guaranteed contracts,\u201d the ruling states.<\/p>\n Former NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell did not immediately communicate the initial arbitration ruling to the union\u2019s membership. His successor, former Browns center and NFLPA president J.C. Tretter, approached the appeal differently, promptly informing the NFLPA player representatives of the result. He included the above quote in his message (via Florio<\/a>) to show that the union had, in part, proven their case.<\/p>\n Now, the grievance is technically done with, but the outcome still offers the union some leverage heading into CBA talks. They now have an arbitrator\u2019s ruling, confirmed by an appeals panel, affirming that the league intended to engage in collusion to limit player contracts. That can help inspire firmer support among players as they negotiate several key issues, including a proposed 18-game regular season. It may also draw the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice for potential antitrust violations, Florio adds, which could also force the league to include certain labor protections in the next CBA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last summer, the NFL world was aflame with discussions of collusion. The NFLPA had filed a grievance years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,7205,11565,593,85],"class_list":["post-601120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-j-c-tretter","tag-lloyd-howell","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}