The answer is no<\/a>. We\u2019re not in a position to do that. . . . We\u2019re not willing to do that. In the end, those are decisions that will be made by our players, our executive committee, our board. They just hired the director. I need to come in and make sure that this organization stabilizes. I think David [White] did a great job. Kudos to David White for stepping in in a really difficult time and stabilizing the organization. I need to continue that, and I need to start building us forward. And the time for stabilizing has really ended. We\u2019ve stabilized now. We need to start building up to do the things we need to do.<\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m tasked with. It\u2019s looking forward to doing that. . . . But we\u2019re not going to start [negotiating] until we\u2019re ready to start, because if we start before we\u2019re ready, we\u2019re not going to succeed in our job. . . . I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll ask. I\u2019m sure they\u2019ll poke around. That\u2019s not surprising. They\u2019ve been kind of poking around publicly, at least for a while, but that\u2019s fine. It\u2019s their job to ask. Our job is to be ready. Our job is to be prepared, and our job is to succeed. That\u2019s what we\u2019re focused on doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ready or not, here they come. It may be less of a negotiation and more of a presentation. My own theory (crackpot or otherwise) is that the league will communicate in the very near future a comprehensive offer for an 18-game season and 16 international games. The details are likely already in place, with next week\u2019s annual meetings likely serving as the vehicle for getting final approval to proceed.<\/p>\n
The offer could go like this: \u201cHere\u2019s what we\u2019ll give you to agree to 18 games starting in 2027. And here\u2019s what the offer will become if you make us wait until 2028. Here\u2019s what it will be if you make us wait until 2029. He\u2019s what it will be if you make us wait until 2030. And here\u2019s what it will be if we have to lock you out in 2031.\u201d<\/p>\n
No, it\u2019s not a negotiation. The union, I believe, will be presented with multiple options, along with a firm deadline for accepting 18 regular-season games as of 2027. Tretter\u2019s first big decision will be whether he can properly assess the choices and make one, even as he separately stabilizes the organization. (Whether it truly needs to be stabilized depends on whether White truly did a \u201cgreat job\u201d during his eight-month stint as interim executive director. Obviously, White didn\u2019t do enough to get the job moving forward.)<\/p>\n
Either way, the NFL is surely ready to move. The NFL has enjoyed stability during the union\u2019s extended run of chaos. The NFL, made up of some of the richest and most powerful businesspeople in the world, has a plan. That plan is soon going to be put into motion. And Tretter will have to decide whether he\u2019s willing to take more now or less later.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ll make it look like a no-brainer. Frankly, it may not be difficult to do that. The imbalance as to the willingness to endure the nuclear option (a work stoppage) makes it clear that the NFLPA\u2019s best interests will be served by voluntarily accepting better terms now, in lieu of reluctantly swallowing lesser terms later.<\/p>\n
And 2027 continues to be the target. As PFT reported the day after Super Bowl LX, there\u2019s still no firm date for Super Bowl LXII in Atlanta. It\u2019s unheard of to be within two years of a Super Bowl with no specific date for it. The convention center needs to be booked for a full week of media events, the NFL Experience, and other activities. Thousands of hotel rooms must be reserved.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve waited, as we\u2019ve reported, to pick a specific date for the Super Bowl to be played in little more than 22 months because of the possibility that, come 2027, the regular season will be extended to 18 games.<\/p>\n
So, yes, it\u2019s coming. Tretter can try to refuse to engage. That won\u2019t stop the NFL from making the union an offer it can\u2019t refuse that entails 18 games in 2027, because refusal will result in lesser terms and lesser terms and lesser terms and ultimately a set of terms the players will accept as they stand on the brink of missing game checks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his first public comments since becoming executive director of the NFL Players Association \u2014 via an interview…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-544923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}