The NFL Players Association accuses the teams of agreeing to avoid contracts whose amounts are fully guaranteed.
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That’s what ESPN reported on Tuesday. The players have indeed filed a complaint for collusion in recent weeks, and an independent conciliator should rule on the subject.
According to this complaint, the owners of the 32 teams would have reached an agreement, during a meeting in August, to stop granting agreements similar to that between the Cleveland Browns and Deshaun Watson (five years and 230 million $ fully guaranteed).
It was the first contract of its kind and it certainly played a role in the demands of other pivots looking for a new deal, such as Lamar Jackson at the Baltimore Ravens. The latter notably said no to a six-year, $290 million contract recently, when only $133 million was guaranteed.
This offer was also at the origin of this approach by the union, said ESPN.