While the game of football is celebrated, the NFL also has a long history of questionable decision-making and underhanded business tactics. Whether it’s the suppression of information about concussions and risks to player safety or outright collusion on the part of its owners, there is a dark side to football that is rarely discussed by an NFL-friendly media.
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And this seems to be playing out once again. According to an independent arbitrator, the NFL management council, armed with approval of the league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, directly “encouraged” teams to reduce the guarantee amounts featured in the contracts of veteran players.
Veteran NFL insider, Pablo Torre, confirmed as much in what has since been heralded as a bombshell report.
“Historically, what happens is everybody with self-interest leaks [these reports] almost immediately, and what’s so fascinating about this is that no one did for about five months… But I did get the document,” said Torre.
This was a decision that was like a landmark finding… NFL players believe that NFL owners, behind closed doors, are conspiring against them… For the first time, we got this ruling,” he added.
According to Torre, Goodell, along with Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, Russell Wilson, eight franchise owners, and various NFLPA executives, were all named in the document. Yet none of them, along with the public, were ever made privy to its existence.
“Lamar Jackson, Russell Wilson, never saw this document,” he said. Nevertheless, Torre suggested that its finding solves the question of “Why did no one want you, an NFL fan, or even the players I just named to see this?”
The arbitrator’s report leaves no doubt, much to the chagrin of NFL higher-ups. However, it’s also damning what Torre described as being “a conflict of interest at the top of the NFLPA.”
“They wanted to protect themselves from findings that, in any normal environment, you would literally be lobbying Congress over this. You would be calling into antitrust investigations into Roger Goodell over this. But they didn’t, there was dead silence,” he added.
Everything from “the literal notes and emails that Roger Goodell sent back and forth with his general counsel” to the information contained in the league’s slideshow presentation is included in the report. And it paints a clear yet disturbing picture.
“That’s why there’s this undeniable clarity around the effort, post-Deshaun Watson contract, to never give full guarantees to star quarterbacks, which is why it’s Kyler, it’s Lamar, and it’s Russell Wilson all wound up in this story too,” said Torre.
Simply put, the owners don’t like paying guaranteed money when the game of football doesn’t guarantee a full return on a player’s career. For those billionaire owners, that’s not how business is supposed to be run.
At this point in time, the implications of Torre’s findings remain relatively unclear, as the NFL will likely do everything in its power to sweep as much of it under the rug as possible. Then again, the damage already seems to be done. Goodell will likely be standing in front of a podium sooner rather than later.
