American Needle vs. NFL

No free agency would be horrible for teams who can't draft worth a lick.

Yes. But what we saw decades ago was even worse. Because owners could do whatever they wanted, some chose to be super cheap, even if it meant losing. Those who were truly interested in winning built impregnable dynasties. So there was not much competitive balance, whether one drafted well or not. On Sept. 1 of each year you knew who was going to win and who was going to lose, more or less. Teams rarely went worst to first or the other way around as they do now. As much as football was great even then, it was more boring than the relatively wide open cap era.

It also was, arguably, an assault on the democratic free market. If I am a plumbing assistant, I can sell my services to whatever plumbing company will pay me the most. But without free agency, players have no opportunity to sell their services to the highest bidder. They are shut out from finding a market-based wage.

To me the competition is the product. All the teams work together to create the product. It's definitely not cut and dry though.

Yes. But what we saw decades ago was even worse. Because owners could do whatever they wanted, some chose to be super cheap, even if it meant losing. Those who were truly interested in winning built impregnable dynasties. So there was not much competitive balance, whether one drafted well or not. On Sept. 1 of each year you knew who was going to win and who was going to lose, more or less.

i agree with you but i heard something interesting a while ago. there is a minimum salary cap now (70 something mill?). teams have to spend atleast the min in salary to players.

the bucs this past offseason were well below the min cap number. so they gave two of their lowest paid players an incentive bonus contract to bump them up and within the min salary cap requirement.

guess what the bonus incentives called four? something ridiculus like 12 blocked kicks this season.

probably not super relevant but i found that interesting.

Yes. But what we saw decades ago was even worse. Because owners could do whatever they wanted, some chose to be super cheap, even if it meant losing. Those who were truly interested in winning built impregnable dynasties. So there was not much competitive balance, whether one drafted well or not. On Sept. 1 of each year you knew who was going to win and who was going to lose, more or less. Teams rarely went worst to first or the other way around as they do now. As much as football was great even then, it was more boring than the relatively wide open cap era.

It also was, arguably, an assault on the democratic free market. If I am a plumbing assistant, I can sell my services to whatever plumbing company will pay me the most. But without free agency, players have no opportunity to sell their services to the highest bidder. They are shut out from finding a market-based wage.

The current system has its flaws, but its worked incredibly well. Even if the NFL wins this suit, I hope theyre smart enough to avoid going back to those dark days. Free agency has to stay. Now, i'd be fine if teams could slap a franchise tag on a player indefinitely, so long as they continued to pay the player the average of the top 5 players at that position plus 10% each year.

i agree with you but i heard something interesting a while ago. there is a minimum salary cap now (70 something mill?). teams have to spend atleast the min in salary to players.

the bucs this past offseason were well below the min cap number. so they gave two of their lowest paid players an incentive bonus contract to bump them up and within the min salary cap requirement.

guess what the bonus incentives called four? something ridiculus like 12 blocked kicks this season.

probably not super relevant but i found that interesting.

Oh, that's relevant. The Bucs were trying to cheat the cap system. You can be sure that players will bring up things like that in court and/or in CBA negotiations.

The current system has its flaws, but its worked incredibly well. Even if the NFL wins this suit, I hope theyre smart enough to avoid going back to those dark days. Free agency has to stay. Now, i'd be fine if teams could slap a franchise tag on a player indefinitely, so long as they continued to pay the player the average of the top 5 players at that position plus 10% each year.

I agree. IMO One reason why the NFL is so much more popular than other sports is because of the competitive balance that free agency and the salary cap have brought. No teams can hoard talent through ridiculous spending that other teams could never match, which seems to be the scene in baseball.

Maybe the court will rule that the NFL is one entity in terms of marketing but not in terms of labor. This will leave American Needle crying but it will preserve the leverage that players need to keep the owners from ending free agency.

Yes. But what we saw decades ago was even worse. Because owners could do whatever they wanted, some chose to be super cheap, even if it meant losing. Those who were truly interested in winning built impregnable dynasties. So there was not much competitive balance, whether one drafted well or not. On Sept. 1 of each year you knew who was going to win and who was going to lose, more or less. Teams rarely went worst to first or the other way around as they do now. As much as football was great even then, it was more boring than the relatively wide open cap era.

It also was, arguably, an assault on the democratic free market. If I am a plumbing assistant, I can sell my services to whatever plumbing company will pay me the most. But without free agency, players have no opportunity to sell their services to the highest bidder. They are shut out from finding a market-based wage.

I have no problem with free agency, it's the American way and people should be allowed to freely make the most they can get. It's free agency combined with the salary cap that bothers me. You may want a player and would like to sign him to a large amount but the cap restricts what you can offer him. You could cut a player to get under the cap and sign the other player, but it may be a player you would like to keep and once he's cut he may not make from another team what you were paying him. It does give an advantage I suppose to those who are able and willing to spend more, but isn't that the way life is outside of the NFL?

I agree. IMO One reason why the NFL is so much more popular than other sports is because of the competitive balance that free agency and the salary cap have brought. No teams can hoard talent through ridiculous spending that other teams could never match, which seems to be the scene in baseball.

Maybe the court will rule that the NFL is one entity in terms of marketing but not in terms of labor. This will leave American Needle crying but it will preserve the leverage that players need to keep the owners from ending free agency.
That seems like the reasonable conclusion, if it is able to be legally justified.

That seems like the reasonable conclusion, if it is able to be legally justified.

That's why we need JoeRedskin!

That's why we need JoeRedskin!

He certainly has gone into hiding, but in his defense (which I hate to do!) he has been massively swamped lately. Maybe today will be the day he comes to the rescue.