A decision to proceed with free agency next week would rival the decision to play games two days after the Kennedy assassination in the annals of NFL P.R. blunders. At this point, it’s likely that the NFL will see the light and not proceed with free agency next week.
For the teams that have wisely closed their facilities, it will be difficult if not impossible to host free agents for visits or to welcome them to sign contracts and to conduct a celebratory (in normal years) press conference with the media. Owners overpay players in the first days of free agency in part to secure that bump in the organization’s profile. If that won’t be happening, teams won’t be getting the full bang for their free-agency megabucks.
Undoubtedly, the league will see how bad the optics would be (the league quite likely already understands that), and the league will delay free agency until a time when it will be more sane to start the spending insanity. As we reported last night, that’s the decision the league currently is expected to announce on Sunday, after voting on the new CBA closes -- and thus can’t be further extended.
It’s the smart thing to do, and it’s the right thing to do. And it would be even more smart and right to do it now.
Even though the NFL currently is in the middle of its non-playing season, there is no offseason for pro football. The league has blown in recent days the opportunity to lead from ahead, sending loud and clear messages aimed at demonstrating that the nation’s most popular sports league takes the situation very seriously. With a shocking number of people still not getting it despite the dramatic alterations to daily life, having the NFL provide a loud, clear, and unequivocal statement would help. It definitely wouldn’t hurt.
So if the plan is to delay free agency on Sunday, go ahead and do it now. Too many reporters are blindly repeating the position that the league has “no plans” to press pause, and too many fans who currently are inclined to call this the flu at best or a hoax at worst are being deprived of an unmistakable signal from their by-far favorite sport that the situation should be taken very seriously.