The term is collusion, and it’s something various NFL players, agents and union reps believe NFL owners conspired to do this offseason in an effort to purposefully deflate the free agent market. Dwight Freeney is one of the players who thinks owners got together to hold back money on the market and he’s not happy about it.
“I basically think the owners got together and decided not to spend the cash on free agents,” Freeney explained to CBS Sports. “I definitely think that’s part of it. I think the owners made a pact. There’s only 32 of them and none of them broke ranks. I think they all decided not to spend money.”
Freeney’s motives for playing the collusion card may have something to do with the fact he remained unemployed for most of the offseason despite being one of the more talented, albeit older, players on the market. Freeney wasn’t the only veteran to be hung out to dry as guys like Nnamdi Asomugha, Charles Woodson and Osi Umenyiora sat on the market longer than they otherwise would have in other offseasons.
In fact just two years ago there was a sweepstakes for the services of Asomugha, yet this year only the San Francisco 49ers showed interest in him and took their time signing him.
According to Mike Freeman od CBS Sports, the NFLPA is so concerned about possible collusion that executive director DeMaurice Smith sent a memo to the league’s player agents to ask if they had proof of collusion and if so to forward it to him so he can build a case against the owners and the league.
"“We have heard reports of a concern that teams are working in concert to ‘peg’, ‘rig’ or ‘set’ market prices on player contracts. If you believe or have information that the teams have been colluding during this free agency period, you have a responsibility as an agent of the NFLPA to come forward and share that information with us. … We have heard anecdotally that some teams are inaccurately reporting that they are facing salary cap restrictions on resigning veteran players. While this is a common allegation and teams are free to make their own determinations on signing players, we provide this information to aid you in accurately evaluating each team’s actual salary cap room.”-DeMaurice Smith"
Freeney and others cite Elvis Dumervil’s low value contract with the Baltimore Ravens and his fallout with the Denver Broncos as proof that there’s something fishy going on this offseason when it comes to owners playing fair.
“What you saw,” said Freeney, “were guys getting small deals. I haven’t seen anything like it. There was a lot of take-it-or-leave-it from teams. It was crazy. Even a guy like [Elvis] Dumervil didn’t make as much money as he should have. He’s in his prime.”
So far no official charges have been filed by the NFLPA and more evidence needs to be gathered first. But if said evidence exists in a large enough quantity, this could be a story that explodes into a bigger issue and it’s a topic that won’t be going away anytime soon.
Add us as a preferred source on Google