The NFL continues to not be ready to think outside the box when it comes to player contracts.
Per a league source, defensive tackle Aaron Donald tried to get a term in his new contract that would have protected him against being leapfrogged as the highest-paid defensive player in football. The Rams, however, refused to do it.
Donald was nevertheless compensated extremely well, and his agents presumably used the surrender of that potential term as a way to get more money from the Rams. But it becomes the latest example of the league holding firm when it comes to not getting creative when it comes to negotiating contracts.
That’s the point Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers recently made regarding his own deal. And the persistent refusal of teams to go beyond the normal boundaries of traditional contractual structure speaks to a dynamic that has been mentioned all too often lately: Collusion.
Yes, collusion. Hiding in plain sight. The product of 32 distinct businesses that allow themselves to be bound together by Big Shield, with the league office (more specifically, the Management Council) telling teams what they can and can’t do.
All too often (and once is too often), the Management Council goes beyond helping teams negotiate contracts that comply with the Collective Bargaining Agreement and instead ensures that teams exercise their freedom to negotiate contracts in a way that the league wants them to do it, creating extra rules and restrictions not currently contained in the CBA.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told Mark Leibovich, author of Big Game, that Jones would pay $250 million if he knew it would win him another Super Bowl. As long as that money doesn’t go to players, of course. Jones learned the hard way in 2012 what happens when he dared to treat the uncapped year of 2010 as uncapped. The league took cap space away from him, and the league will find other ways to act against any team that tries to get too cute when it comes to gaining an edge in the chase for players.
If one team does something new and revolutionary (like tying compensation to a percentage of the salary cap), other teams will do it. And all teams eventually will be worse off for it. That’s ultimately why no one will get creative about player contracts -- and it’s also why the union may want to consider what other collusion grievances can be filed on the heels of a Colin Kaepernick collusion claim that’s on a collision course with a full-blown hearing.
