What’s in the New NFL/NFLPA CBA?

BY ADAM GREENE

You can be forgiven for missing the news that a new NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement passed a vote by the NFL Players Association and will go into effect beginning with the 2020-21 season, if there is one.

I don’t know what you were doing when this slipped by you. Maybe stabbing someone with a whittled-down KFC spork as you stole their Charmin Ultra and Germ-X. Who’s to say?

As we have, as a society, decided to face the apocalypse with immaculately clean butt holes, we now find the time to look back and see how this new CBA will affect the sport we love and hope happens again, on time, which, you know, means the world didn’t end.

It would be an absolute shame to only now get to see the New England Patriots dynasty collapse at the same time as our civilization.

Fun times.

WHAT DO PLAYERS GET?

Now, not all the players were happy with this deal. There were some objections by the league’s biggest stars, like Aaron Rodgers and Todd Gurley, but they were overruled by democracy and players who don’t get paid in Bugattis who wanted to cash in on 47 percent of the league’s revenue, amounting to $70.5 million distributed among all the players. It bumps up to 48 percent in 2021 and could be 48.8 if the league’s TV revenues go up by 120 percent.

Considering the NFL might be the first pro sport to start after Cottonelle-Ageddon, that’s probably as safe a bet as you could make right now.

The deal also keeps NFL owners from fudging the numbers with “stadium credits,” meaning new construction won’t affect the total number. Also, players will get a cut of all the new, legal gambling in stadiums and 70 percent of the incremental revenue for the L.A. Stadium project. And I have no idea what that means. But it’s cash in their pocket so they voted for it.

According to reports, that’ll all come to a about a 20 percent boost in pay for about 60 percent of the NFL’s players. By 2030, the league minimum for a player with one year experience will be $1.185 million, up from $585,000 under the old deal.

Active gameday rosters will be expanded, from 46 to 48 players (with the rule that one of those extra players must be an offensive lineman – frankly, most teams would do this anyway). Practice squads expand from 10 players to 12 this season and 14 beginning in 2022. They’ll also make more money, $11,500 a week, up from $8,000 a week.

The teams can also pull some shenanigans with practice squad players and add them to their active rosters multiple times a season, pushing their roster size to 55 players.

There’s a new “performance escalator bonus” that can boost pay for second rounder that plays a certain number of snaps per season, something that was previously only available for players selected in rounds 3-7.

Fifth-year options will no longer be based on the pick a player was selected, but will all be based on performance and could be as high as the franchise tag for the position. That fifth-year option is also full guaranteed and teams must pick up the option before a player’s fourth season.

The NFL will no longer suspend players for positive marijuana tests and will only call a test “positive” if it’s 150 nanograms of THC or over. Even then, a board of “jointly appointed medical professionals” will determine if the player needs treatment. If a guy is busted by the cops with pot, the NFL won’t punish that either.

PEDs and masking agents will still result in suspensions to varying degrees.

Roger Goodell will no longer be involved in NFL discipline. The new deal will have “neutral arbitration” and it’s expected that clubs and players will pay far fewer fines.

Players will be paid over 34 weeks, up from 17 weeks and that will expand to 36 weeks once the 17^th game kicks on. They’ll also get a 1/17^th salary raise to their current contracts when/if that extra game gets added.

OH YEAH. WHAT DO THE OWNERS GET?

They get that 17^th game that they’ve wanted so desperately. It won’t start this upcoming season and can only begin in 2021, but the owners can decide they don’t want to do that. But the idea that they won’t add it is the funniest joke I’ve made in this article.

The owners have a window between 2021-23 to figure it out, bye weeks, home games, etc. But trust that they will.

The playoffs have been expanded by two teams, one for each conference. Only the team earning home field advantage in the regular season will have a first-round AFC or NFC bye. We’re not waiting on that. It’s happening this upcoming season, barring the end of the world as we know it.

An extra game and an extra playoff game make the league way more valuable for their new TV deals. This was a huge change, one that affects the league top-down financially and adds a little something for the fans and bettors with two more playoff games and 16 more regular season games.

And it’s labor peace through 2030. Which is good for everybody, as long as no one opens that seventh seal or shows up riding a pale horse in the next few months.

Get the latest NFL football odds and information–follow BetOnline.ag on Twitter!

BetOnline.ag on Instagram–Follow for the latest odds, stats and information!