Vikings Rookie Contracts (May) Violate CBA, Be Voided
Joe Johnson
|
Whoops!
Something that wasn’t widely reported (At least here, or the avenues I use to get things here), there was a delay earlier this off-season in getting rookie contracts done because of concerns by the NFL Players Association about language in the rookie contracts for newly drafted Minnesota Vikings players, according to an article on NBCSports.com. Apparently, those concerns aren’t limited to just the Vikings, but exist for other teams as well.
According to NFLPA spokesman George Atallah, there was a wide range of problems with a wide range of teams (25 to 26, to be exact) and thus a boatload of players (160, also, I really shouldn’t say “Boatload of Players” on a Vikings site… Not because I abhor sex on Lake Minnetonka, but because if people object I may have to hire Brad Childress). Here’s what Atallah had to say about the situation, courtesy of the good people ESPN (Or should I say “Good person” at ESPN… Get it?):
“The union has undergone a comprehensive review of rookie contracts and language in those contracts for this year, the CBA explicitly prohibits players from some of the language that we have seen the clubs attempt to impose in these deals. We are considering all of our options to protect the players and enforce the CBA.”
Apparently the union objects to the following clauses:
– A clause that requires players to take more than the two prescribed off-season physicals
– A clause that allows teams to directly withdraw money owed for fines and other reasons
– Language requiring impending free agents to “Secure permission from their current clubs” before speaking to other teams in the “legal tampering” period
So what does this all mean? Well, the title kind of gave it away but essentially if the NFLPA files a grievance everyone of those 160 rookie deals will be voided and teams will have to start the signing process over. That’s really not a huge deal, it just may effect practice time if this process overlaps with OTA’s or training camp. While I was pre-law at the University of Minnesota (Or at least in the pre-law society and a Sociology of Law/Criminology/Deviance and Political Science major), I don’t really know what that means in terms of a timeline. Typically this stuff moves incredibly slow, but you’d think they could draw up another contract pretty quickly. My fear is that the teams and the NFLPA will battle over these clauses/provisions (as opposed to just scrapping them) and it could end up leaving the majority of NFL teams without their recently drafted players during the most important time of the year for said players. That’d be unprecedented and really, really bad for the NFL.
Considering the Vikings are one of the teams caught up in this nonsense, I have little faith it’ll end smoothly. But, you never know.