When the workers find real power, management can\u2019t take it.<\/p>\n
Under the NFL\u2019s Collective Bargaining Agreement, the workers have found real power. In one very specific way.<\/p>\n
The 2020 CBA made it much more difficult for players to hold out. Enter the hold-in. <\/p>\n
In many cases, the team allows a player who wants a new contract to not practice while talks continue. The player is in the building (once a player reports it\u2019s difficult under the CBA to leave), he\u2019s working out, he\u2019s attending meetings. It\u2019s just a matter of time before a deal is done.<\/p>\n
Unless a deal isn\u2019t done. And if the player is willing to cite an injury, embellished or flat-out fabricated, to refuse to provide services until the player gets what he wants, the team is stuck.<\/p>\n
Last year, the Cowboys cried \u201cuncle\u201d after they realized that their apparent plan to kick the can on the Micah Parsons contract through the 2025 season wasn\u2019t going to work, because Parsons wasn\u2019t going to play, due to a back injury. This year, former Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. cited a back injury (which has suddenly healed, to no surprise) to sit out all of training camp, all of the preseason, and the first three games of the regular season. On Wednesday, the Steelers threw in the towel and traded Porter to, coincidentally, the Cowboys.<\/p>\n
The powers-that-be won\u2019t like this trend, because the players have found a way to crack the code on the CBA. After years of playing football, any player could point to one or more body parts that create chronic pain and\/or present a risk of more significant injury.<\/p>\n
If a player is committed to the approach, what can the team do? Tell him they don\u2019t believe him? Fine him? Suspend him? <\/p>\n
It would spark a legal mess under the CBA, a P.R. debacle for the team, and a potential morale issue in the locker room.<\/p>\n
Enter the looming talks on a new labor deal. Surely, the Management Council is already brainstorming strategies to end the hold-in.<\/p>\n
One fairly simple possibility would entail arranging for a neutral, third-party doctor to examine the player and to determine whether he has an injury and, if so, whether he shouldn\u2019t be practicing or playing because of it. If the doctor says the player is fine, and if the player persists in refusing to practice or play, the player becomes susceptible to an immediate fine, or a suspension.<\/p>\n
Still, that\u2019s far easier said than done. Most competent doctors will tell patients that they know their bodies better than anyone. Most competent doctors aren\u2019t in the habit of telling patients they\u2019re faking a condition.<\/p>\n
Really, who wants to be potentially responsible for informing a player he doesn\u2019t have a real injury and essentially forcing him to play when he doesn\u2019t want to?<\/p>\n
The better approach could be to financially incentivize the player to practice and play. Over the past 20 years or so, offseason workout bonuses and per-game active roster bonuses have become an effective tool to tie pay to actual performance. A significant training-camp (and\/or regular-season) practice participation bonus would raise the stakes for players who can\u2019t (or won\u2019t) suit up. Per-game active roster bonuses, which currently aren\u2019t part of the standard rookie deals, could be added to the formula for paying draft picks.<\/p>\n
Obviously, this would punish players who are legitimately injured, and it would tempt some players to risk further injury in the name of earning their pay. But the teams already employ that approach with active-roster bonuses in veteran contracts. For young players, it becomes an important device to avoid a hold-in after their third seasons, when they become eligible for second contracts.<\/p>\n
The problem is that the goalposts will potentially move. A player who wants a new contract and who previously would have cited an injury to avoid playing could just half-ass it through practices or games. But it\u2019s one thing to refuse to play; it\u2019s another to put on the uniform, step into the arena, and constantly make business decisions. That would open the player up to fair criticism from media and fans, and to resentment from his teammates.<\/p>\n
Still, management has to be miffed that players have found a way to stage what is essentially a one-man wildcat strike until he gets what he wants. And it would be foolish to think the league isn\u2019t already trying to come up with a way to end it.<\/p>\n
That said, some owners may not mind it. In 2025, the Cowboys\u2019 loss was Green Bay\u2019s gain, after the Packers traded for Parsons. In 2026, the Cowboys benefited from the tactic that was used against them last year, with the trade that brought Porter to Dallas.<\/p>\n
Given that all owners could have their contractual rights to a player short-circuited by a conscious refusal to practice or play based on a non-existent injury, the overall balance likely tips in favor of trying to find a way to claw back the power the players have created by claiming, in an industry rife with injuries, that they aren\u2019t healthy enough to work \u2014 even if they are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the workers find real power, management can\u2019t take it. Under the NFL\u2019s Collective Bargaining Agreement, the workers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":916114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-916113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916113","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=916113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}