Collusion, that is the word of the day, as in the NFL, owners colluded to suppress guaranteed contracts to its players. It all started when Deshaun Watson got a fully guaranteed contract of five years, $230 million. The owners were okay with the Minnesota Vikings giving Kirk Cousins $84 million guaranteed, but $230 million, woo that set a dangerous precedent in their eyes, due to one man. In the NFL, quarterback contracts operate as whose contract is expiring is who will get the most money. It does not matter if you aren’t the best QB, if it is your time to get paid, you get paid.
The quarterback whose time to get paid was NFL MVP Lamar Jackson. From a certain point of view, Deshaun Watson did not deserve that contract he received, as he had sat out a year fighting the Houston Texans and he also had 24 pending sexual misconduct lawsuits. So, if you asked me to put my money on a QB who would have gotten a fully guaranteed of that magnitude, it would not be him.
You are asking what Deshaun has to do with Lamar, and the answer is everything. Deshaun laid the framework to get a fully guaranteed deal, but his owner did not want to give him it. Lamar Jackson if he got that $230 million contract, well he would be worth every god damn penny. We even have his owner on the record saying he did not want to. So, he allegedly colluded with his competitors to make sure that he did not get that contract. We were told these are independent organizations who do business their way. So, why are you calling your competitors to help you screw over your star asset?
It was recently revealed by Pablo S. Torre three weeks ago that an arbitration ruling that revealed proof of collusion was suppressed by the NFL and NFLPA. The smoking gun in this sixty-one page ruling was a text exchange between the owners of the Arizona Cardinals and the Los Angeles Chargers where Dean Spanos, owner of the Chargers, congratulated Mike Bidwell, owner of the Cardinals, on helping when his QB is up for his contract. I understand why the NFL wants to suppress it, because they did not want people to know that they negotiate in bad faith which is illegal. The crux of the story is why did the NFLPA want it to be buried.
It is simple. The NFLPA is led by spineless, moronic, and in one of the cases, criminal people. JC Tretter is the main culprit in all of this. For the first time in years, you have leverage in negotiations against them. You have them over the barrel, so why were you ok with the burial? The reason why is pretty straight forward, as he insulted one of the union members and blamed him for quarterbacks not being able to get fully guaranteed deals. So, he did not want his constituents to know that he bad-mouthed one of them. He wanted to keep this front that he was still the right man for the job. He is not.
