NFL Collusion Ruling: Chris Long Likens Players to Rally Cars After Pablo Torre Calls Out JC Tretter

Deshaun Watson signed a five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract on March 18, 2022. NFL fans and analysts hoped the deal would spark a new trend in league circles. Instead of fully guaranteed contracts becoming the norm, though, Watson’s pact essentially became a one-off. This felt suspicious to the NFLPA, who filed a grievance alleging the league “colluded to restrict or limit” fully guaranteed contracts later that same year.

Earlier this week, Pablo Torre – courtesy of his Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast – released the investigation’s findings. He revealed an independent arbitrator ruled against the NFLPA, saying there was no collusion by the NFL. However, the arbitrator – Christopher Droney – did find evidence that the league, in ESPN’s words, “urged clubs to limit” guarantees.

“There is little question that the NFL Management Council, with the blessing of the commissioner, encouraged the 32 NFL clubs to reduce guarantees in veterans’ contracts at the March 2022 annual owners meeting,” Droney said.

Confused? Torre was, too, and still is. Arizona Cardinals owner Michael Bidwell reportedly told Los Angeles Chargers owner Dean Spanos that “Cleveland really screwed things up” with Watson. Droney found countless examples of correspondence alluding to avoiding full guarantees beyond Bidwell’s and Spanos’ chat. Despite this, the NFL still escaped the grievance without penalty.

That’s where NFLPA president J.C. Tretter comes in. According to Droney’s report, Tretter was aggravated that Russell Wilson – who failed to secure a fully guaranteed contract from the Denver Broncos after being traded by the Seattle Seahawks – did not piggyback Watson and continue the trend.

Torre discussed his in-depth analysis of the situation on Chris Long’s Green Light podcast. In his opinion, Tretter’s actions that followed Wilson’s extension hurt the NFLPA in the grievance.

“You have the president of the union trashing one of his own… [and saying], ‘actually, the owners didn’t do anything wrong’… if you were a player right now, Chris Long, and you realize that your union president had done that, what would you think? What would you do? What would you say?,” Torre said.

Once this development transpired, and Tretter realized his screw-up would be discovered, he apparently had the NFLPA fight to keep the report under wraps. If it hadn’t been for Torre, the general public – and most NFL players – would never know its findings. Long, now fully briefed, is irate with Tretter and the NFLPA.

“If I found out that a major bargaining chip in us getting what we want is being buried to protect one person, I’d say, ‘get this guy the f*ck out of here’… I understand why owners don’t want to give guaranteed money. We’re like rally cars, bro. We’re all going to break… but this is what we want. And we’re not going to get it… [because] the NFLPA is kind of looking the other way,” Long said.

Analysts regularly mock the NFLPA for its lack of cohesion. Deliberately burying a report that would serve as a massive stepping stone toward enhancing life for 99% of your members proves those detractors know what they’re talking about. For the first time ever, players had tangible evidence to strengthen their negotiating power. And their supposed leaders wasted the opportunity to take advantage of it.

If you’d like to hear Torre’s full analysis of “Collusion-Gate” (his term), you can find it here.