Money talks. Even if it's years away from exchanging hands, dollars will always be the loudest voice in a room full of reasonable heads.
For the National Football League, money is the only voice owners and players alike really listen to. Commissioner Roger Goodell made that clear as day on Saturday with his latest comments on a Collective Bargaining Agreement that is still five years away from expiring.
"There are no formal plans on any discussions,” Goodell told reporters (h/t Pro Football Talk). “We obviously continue to be in close communication with the [players] union on a variety of matters, but no start of negotiations have been set or are under consideration really at this point. We did spend time today talking, at length, about areas of our Collective Bargaining Agreement that we want to focus on. The two areas that we spent time on were really the [salary] cap system itself, the integrity of that system, how’s it working, where do we need to address that in the context of collective bargaining, when that does happen. That was a very lengthy discussion."
Why would the owners be concerned enough with the current cap system that they needed to sit down with Goodell for a "very lengthy discussion?" Not enough money, that's why.
Roger Goodell is prepared to force players to take a pay cut to appease owners
The NFL has already made it clear that it wants to expand to an 18-game regular season schedule and increase international competition to 16 games per year. That can't happen until the next CBA and the players are going to want their voices heard on that.
However, the players don't have as much bargaining power as they used to and it's apparent Goodell and owners are aware of that. They looked poised to demand a larger slice of the revenue pie, citing increased expenses.
“The second [area of concern] is just the rising cost, the cost of stadiums, the cost to facilities, the cost of operation, the cost of investment, and how dramatically that’s impacting the ownership view,” Goodell continued. “So, I think both of those will form what I would call our priorities. Going into any negotiation whenever that occurs. So that was the extent of our discussion today. [The] 18-and-two [season format] did not even come up.”
Player contracts have ballooned in recent years, but so has the league's bottom line. With the inflated ledgers of owners due to savvy agents and surging popularity of players, the ones who cut the checks sound like they want to recoup those investments.
If the 2011 negotiations were any lesson, owners know players will put pen to paper in order to avoid missing out on game checks. Teams are more than happy to flip the switch and shut things down if the players won't acquiesce.
That's also an admission that owners will happily tell fans to shove it if their pockets won't continue to be lined to their satisfaction. We all want more football but fair value is fair value.
So, consider the players association officially on notice. Prepare your strategy now or the owners will walk all over your members once again.