The National Football League Players Association has been widely panned as being a players union that has not been ideally advising it's membership.
In May of 2024, Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff agreed to a four-year, $212 million extension that included $170 million in guaranteed monies.
The new contract places the 30-year-old under contract with the Lions through the 2027 season and also includes an option for the 2028 season.
Earlier this week, Pablo Torre and Mike Florio worked together to reveal specific details of a 2022 lawsuit. At the time, the NFLPA claimed NFL teams and the league violated terms of the collective bargaining agreement by working together to limit offering players fully guaranteed contracts.
When quarterback Deshaun Watson signed a fully guaranteed $230 million deal, owners alledgedly worked to ensure the contract was more of an outlier than the norm.
Torre and Florio discussed the findings released in a 61-page ruling that had not been previously released. They revealed that the NFL Management Council, which had been advising each of the league's owners, was encouraging teams to avoid fully guaranteeing veteran players' contracts.
Arbitrator Christopher Droney wrote in the 61-page ruling, “There is little question that the NFL Management Council, with the blessing of the Commissioner, encouraged the 32 NFL Clubs to reduce guarantees in veterans’ contracts at the March 2022 annual owners’ meeting. However, the evidence did not establish a clear preponderance that the Clubs agreed to do that or participated in such a scheme. There are many Clubs whose only connection to his proceeding is the attendance at the Owners’ meeting, and the expert evidence of aggregate and average changes in various measure of spending, guaranteed and otherwise, is not sufficient, even when considered with the other evidence presented, for the NFLPA to meet its standard of proof.”
For Goff and players like Lamar Jackson, why weren't they given fully guaranteed contracts similar to what Watson received?
After discovering how league owners were operating and quarterbacks not earning fully guaranteed dollars, it can be argued a properly functioning union would have raised much more of a public stink that dollars were being left on the table.
Instead, it appeared both sides worked to try and hide the findings of the ruling.
Unfortunately, text messages released between the owner of the Cardinals and Chargers indicated that player contracts were being analyzed, especially at the quarterback position.
According to Pro Football Talk, "Far more surprising is the NFLPA’s failure to weaponize the ruling. It makes no sense for the union to hide what was, ultimately, a victory. They proved that the league colludes, or at least that it tries to."
It can be argued that based on Goff's playoff success in Motown, he should have been offered and accepted a fully guaranteed contract.
Where was his union to fight for a player maximizing his earning potential?
While Goff is not underpaid by any stretch, the union seemed to be okay with a player accepting 170 million in guarantees instead of 212 million.
Detroit's signal-caller is likely not fretting about 42 million, but the players union is now under even more of a microscope for not advancing the interests of their membership.
