WEBVTT - How to Break a Union From the Inside: The NFL Players Association, Pt. 1 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:05.560 Alzon Media. 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:09.560 Welcome to It could happen hear a podcast about unions 0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:12.400 falling apart, and in this case, how they're not being 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:15.320 put back together again. I am your host, Bio Loong, 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.479 and today we are telling a somewhat unusual story for 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:21.279 this show. It's usual in the sense that it's a 0:00:21.320 --> 0:00:24.280 story about, you know, the replacement of democracy with bureaucracy. 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:27.800 If like the death spiral of business union of unionism, 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:30.320 it's a story it's also as much about the defeat 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:32.720 of the workers movement as it is like Lamar Jackson's 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:35.920 counting stats, a thing that it also bizarrely is about. 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:38.520 And this is the story of. 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:41.519 The crisis of the NFL Players Association, which is the 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:46.960 NFL's union. And it is so unhinged that the only 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:50.559 way that this could actually be talked about reasonably is 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:54.880 to bring in someone who knows ball, and that is 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:58.680 Charles MacDonald of Yahoo Sports and the wonderful Football three 0:00:58.720 --> 0:00:59.600 o one podcast. 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:01.960 Welcome to the show. This is going to be a trip. 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:05.040 Yeah, thanks for having me. I've listened to a few episodes, 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:06.679 so I was excited and you asked me to come on. 0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:10.480 Love your work, and uh yeah, this is this is 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:13.839 gonna be a good rant because not even really a rant, 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:17.399 because because because honestly, like when when you like when 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.000 you start the Puel is back, it is really like 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:24.120 a textbook case study from what we know on like 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:26.720 just straight up organizational decay. 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:29.000 Like you get such a clear picture on how. 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:31.360 Just really a few people, in this case, thirty two 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:36.720 NFL owners can just completely dictate the life of you know, 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:40.200 thousands of people who are literally sacrificing their bodies to 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:43.759 try and you know, escape whatever poverty they come from 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:45.720 in their in their earlier life. 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:48.600 So it's, uh, it's fascinating, it's sad. 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:50.640 I mean, this is one of those areas that I 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:53.480 have obviously because it's my it's my job. But it 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:58.800 just like extreme cognitive dissonance sometimes. Like I love football, 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:01.480 you know, I play from the time I was seven 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:05.000 through college obviously, Like I do this work, it's kind 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:07.880 of giving me like everything, and then you have to 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:11.200 deal with just so much bad stuff that comes with me. 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:12.040 Yeah. 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:15.960 Yeah, Like I remember like covering the Colin Kaepernick season, 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:18.040 which was ten years ago as of this. 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:20.960 God right Jesus years ago. 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:24.920 Yeah, and just like seeing how alienating that was just 0:02:24.960 --> 0:02:28.280 like just writing like a column saying, hey, you know, Washington, 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:30.600 like they should work Colin Kaepernick out because they don't 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:33.240 have a quarterback and this guy is a startable quarterback. 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:36.239 And you would get like hate mail over that stuff. 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:39.360 But I'm still tuning every Sunday, you know, Lamar Jackson stuff. 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:41.560 I was on the front lines for that, but still. 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:44.640 Tuning in to get my racest slop every Sunday. 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:48.920 It's a fundamental issue here. Yeah, people will still do 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.079 it immediately. I am mildly proud that I wasn't watching 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:54.680 that era, but I wasn't watching that era specifically because 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:57.200 the Seahawks lost Super Bolt to the Patriots and then 0:02:57.240 --> 0:02:59.959 I was like, I'm fucking out for like eight. 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:03.520 Well, I've been watching this stuff my whole life. Like 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:06.959 I remember watching like college football with like my dad 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:08.519 and his friends when I was like five and six 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:11.440 years Old's like, I like, legit, just don't know anything 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:13.080 else too, to be like, I had to use this 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:15.640 sport as like my vehicle to kind of explore the 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:18.280 rest of the world, like once I got out of college, 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:19.560 just try to figure my shit out. 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:21.960 Yeah, And I think we have a good combination here 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:24.280 to talk about this because you come at this from 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:27.239 the football angle and then exploring out of the like, oh, 0:03:27.280 --> 0:03:30.680 by god, this is so unhinged. Everything is broken, And 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:32.639 then I come at this kind of from the opposite direction, 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:34.320 which is one of the things that's been really frustrating 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:36.320 about the coverage of this is that, like, like there's 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:38.680 lots of very good coverage pubble Tory, who's done a 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:40.400 lot of very good work about this, And it's like 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:43.279 the guy who kind of instigated the whole. 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:46.600 Like instigator's kind of put in it is put in 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:50.120 it lightly. I mean he got the union president fired basically. 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:52.680 Yeah, he got the union president fired after it was 0:03:52.920 --> 0:03:56.480 revealed that he was using union buddy to go to 0:03:56.560 --> 0:03:59.600 strip clubs. 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:05.160 That's like the tail end of this story. 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.920 Yeah, that's like the end of it. That's where it's showing, right. 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.400 But Like, the thing that's been frustrating to me about 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:13.320 this is like the people covering this, and people have 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:15.440 done a lot of good work. Is there not people 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:18.000 who cover unions at all? 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:19.120 Yeah? 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:20.240 And like that's like. 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:22.120 What I do, right, And like I don't know, like 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:24.600 I think as much as this episode is going to 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:28.440 be us screaming about this union doing unhinged shit like 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:33.080 we're obviously like pro union, Like I had my union 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:36.520 that irethorganized on by show to talk about our contract 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:36.880 against you. 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:39.279 It's like, yeah, I was a member of the first 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.200 box union that yeah, just god damn. 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:43.320 That was almost ten years ago. 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:48.599 Now is Christ so old and look like I believe 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:51.120 in this stuff, like I like, but with the strokegle 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:54.080 of a pan not to put it that's blasically because 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:55.839 obviously a lot of fight went to it, but with 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:57.600 a strugle with a pen, like I was able to 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:01.800 live in DC after Arry broke, you know, and it's crazy, 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:05.240 like my salary went up to Liverpool age and nothing. 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:07.720 Died yep, right, you know, no one died. 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:11.760 It was it was it was business as usual, honestly, 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:15.040 like nothing was weird. So obviously people who listen to 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:17.440 the show, like you know that these people with the 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:20.160 money like they're out to get us obviously for their 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:25.520 own game. And it's so just brazenly clear through like 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:28.479 this union story, especially through the past twenty years, which 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:30.000 is where I think you kind of have to start it. 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:33.880 I mean, just systematically stripped down. And the one thing 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:36.960 that even Pablo on his most recent episode because he 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:39.080 talked about it last week because J. C. 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:42.480 Tretder was elected director. 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:47.000 One of the villains of this story the store, right. 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:50.080 And you know, one thing about like Pablo and Mike Florio, 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:52.160 who have really been on this more than like any 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:55.600 other national journalist, is like, yeah, we still don't know 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:59.560 a big component of like the why and the how 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:03.040 this is happening, because you know, well, we gotta get 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:05.279 into because basically it feels like there's two two or 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.159 three guys kind of acting as liaisons to the owner 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:11.960 while also trying to respect and you know, run the union, 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:16.280 which are obviously just two completely incompatible ideologies when you're 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:18.080 trying to work that out. 0:06:18.440 --> 0:06:20.600 Yeah, I guess that's actually a way to start talking 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:24.600 about this kind of going back to there there used 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:27.360 to be a time when the NFL union would go 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:30.839 on strike, like they did pickets, like they fought scabs 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:32.960 outside of the gates of football stadium. This was a 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.240 thing that happened like regularly. Like but there's there's a 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.080 whole bunch of stories of like umw A guys and 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:41.640 like guys from like the auto unions like on these 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:45.720 pickets with the NFL players and you know, like one 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:46.680 of one of the sort of. 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:48.800 Upshots of this God. 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:51.400 Okay, that's a terrible punt, I'm realizing now because this. 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:54.920 Okay, we gotta talk about Gene, you know, yeah. 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:58.000 Yeah, yeah, one of one of the guys who led 0:06:58.040 --> 0:06:59.920 this union was Gene Upshaw, who was a player for 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:02.440 a long time and then was like ran the union 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:04.279 for most of its history. 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.960 And he's you know, he's running an actual union. 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:12.400 Like they go on strike, they organize, they like do shit, 0:07:13.120 --> 0:07:15.600 and you know, Jane like over the course of this 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:20.440 runs into like they start losing strikes, which is just 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:21.840 like a nightmare, and then. 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:24.880 He just like dies in two thousand and eight, Like 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:25.280 this is. 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:27.480 Really horrible thincreatic cancer. 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:28.560 Yeah. 0:07:29.000 --> 0:07:31.640 So so like not only like like Jane, Jane was 0:07:31.640 --> 0:07:35.000 a Hall of Fame offensive lineman. Yeah, like like when 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:37.239 you think of the Raiders in the in the past, 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:39.920 like he was kind of like the start of that 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:42.920 era where the only basically the only area where we 0:07:42.920 --> 0:07:44.320 still think of the Raiders. 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:45.640 As like you know, an entity. 0:07:45.720 --> 0:07:49.040 Yeah that should be respected, right, right, not a joke 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:52.280 because well, because you know it was it was a 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:54.640 different time in the league. Like especially when we see 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:57.840 what the Seahawks sale ends up looking like yeah, and 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:01.320 we've seen like the Broncos and the Commanders get sold 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:02.520 within the past decade. 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:06.679 These teams are now being run by people who don't 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:07.920 have football backgrounds. 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:10.600 Like when you think of you know, even even someone 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:13.440 as despicable as Jerry Jones, like you can't you can't 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:15.680 doubt at his heart that you know, he loves this 0:08:15.760 --> 0:08:18.920 sport and will be an advocate to the sport, even 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:22.040 in ways that can be harmful to the sport at times. 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:25.720 But now we we kind of have like this influx 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:28.920 of people who don't have football backgrounds, but they have 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:32.120 the capital to kind of get in and that that 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:34.640 has also been a shift I think just from an 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:38.000 ownership perspective over the last few years. But when you 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:42.080 look at where Gene was coming out as a player 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:44.520 after he retired, and think in the early eighties, he 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:48.280 kind of set the standard for you know, he was 0:08:48.320 --> 0:08:52.199 elected he was elected executive director of the union I think, 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:54.800 I think in the eighties and he held that position 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:57.040 until he died in two thousand and eight. 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:59.240 So yeah, he died in office. 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.680 Like that's a long time and it's a lot of trust. 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:05.640 And also I think Gene kind of solidified the idea, 0:09:06.160 --> 0:09:12.040 which is important now that players should run this union, 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:14.880 which I agree with. You know, yeah, that's what the 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:17.440 union is, right, That's that's what the union is. And 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:19.360 I would say even just like as someone who played 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:23.240 football byself, like it's kind of a cult when you're 0:09:23.240 --> 0:09:26.920 in there and you don't really really trust the outsiders 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:29.360 to understand like what is going on here on a 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.240 day to day basis. And also when you look at 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.080 like the start of this union back in the fifties, 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:37.840 training camp used to be free for the owners. They 0:09:37.840 --> 0:09:41.960 didn't get paid for training camp. Well preseason games they played. 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:45.319 They played six free preseason games. Yeah, and didn't get 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:46.520 paid for training camps. 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:50.000 Unreal, unreal, Like you can like you can get serious, 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:53.280 like people every single year get really really seriously injured, 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.240 like trading camp and preseason games. 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:58.959 And there was no free agency, right, so like the 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:02.280 team that drafted you, like they own you until you 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:03.720 know you're ready to call it quick till they trade 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:06.320 you somewhere else where they cut you and you kind 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:07.760 of got to figure it out. But like the idea 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:10.280 that you could just like have this agency and leave 0:10:10.400 --> 0:10:12.600 and your contract expires, you can go side with someone else. 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:13.800 That was not a thing. 0:10:14.080 --> 0:10:17.480 So obviously, when when you think about where football is now, 0:10:17.840 --> 0:10:19.600 like what I tell people is like why when they ask, 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:20.760 like why should I care about this union? 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:23.280 Okay, think about how bad it is now? It can 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:23.840 get worse. 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:24.559 It was worse. 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.839 Yeah, it was worse. It was significantly worse. 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:31.280 But you know, you have like this idea that and 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:33.960 it's a correct idea because the players are the basis 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:36.920 of it that this person in charge of the union 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.839 needs to be a player. And Gene, like, coming from 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:44.440 his background with the Raiders, we were talking about proud 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:48.360 football organization. Like the very like material basis of being 0:10:48.400 --> 0:10:52.560 an NFL player was extremely important to Gene. So you know, 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:55.679 up until he passed away in two thousand and eight, 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:58.720 I mean he is you know, he's like you said, 0:10:58.760 --> 0:10:59.920 he's leading strikes. 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:02.199 He's fighting for more revenue. 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:04.839 He's fighting for you know, more benefits on the back 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:08.120 end after guys retire, and it kind of culminates in 0:11:08.840 --> 0:11:12.520 the two thousand and six CBA. I would say this 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:15.079 is kind of like the Empire strikes back moment for 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:18.439 the owners because in two thousand and six, the players 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.640 in the owners. They signed a CBA that on the 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:26.280 surface granted the players a sixty percent sixty percent revenue 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:29.640 share against the owners forty percent. When you start actually 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:31.000 digging through the numbers. 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:35.040 And yeah, that's not fuck like it was fake. 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:37.920 It was fake, right, So I'll say this. It was 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:40.640 fake in the sense that there was something called like 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:43.240 a revenue credit or a revenue attack or something that 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:47.320 the owners took off of the pie before it went 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:51.640 down to like the sixty forty split, right, So you know, 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:54.160 and it's it started, you know in two thousand and six, 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:56.080 Like I think the first time they cut it it 0:11:56.120 --> 0:11:58.760 was like, you know, eight hundred million dollars and then 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:01.000 you know, with in two years, they were taking well 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:03.600 over a billion dollars before it got passed down onto 0:12:03.640 --> 0:12:05.920 the player. So you know, the players that got sixty 0:12:05.960 --> 0:12:08.760 percent of the total revenue. But by the time you 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:11.760 know that they the owners took a second look at 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:14.280 that CBA and they used their opt out clause in 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:17.040 two thousand and eight, it was functionally like a fifty 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:19.559 one to fifty two percent split in favor of the players, 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:24.880 which the owners deemed completely unacceptable, right, yeah, Like and 0:12:24.920 --> 0:12:27.120 it's so funny because like this is this is like 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:28.720 the first part like where you start to see like, 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:30.839 at least in this era of football, you get to 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:33.960 see how greedy these people are right where you're already 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:36.280 taking a top off of like this quote unquote total 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:39.719 revenue and then you're you're pulling the clause in two 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.240 years to get out of this. So in two thousand 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:44.640 and eight, the owners say, we are going to get 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:47.160 out of this, and now the CBA instead of like 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:49.640 the ten year clause is going to expire at the 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.120 end of the twenty ten season, so they had two 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:55.240 seasons to kind of figure out what was going to 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:58.680 happen next. But unfortunately, in two thousand and eight, Gene 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:01.920 Upshaw gets pink out of cancer and I honestly just 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:04.560 like just deteriors pretty quickly and passes away right before 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.560 the season. So, hey, listeners of this podcast probably know 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:12.000 what do billionaires do when they see a power vacuum 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:13.720 at the top of their labor force that they are 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:18.080 actively you know, fighting against, They pounce and you have 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:20.840 this vacuum of leadership. And then Damor Smith gets voted 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:25.760 the executive director of the NFLPA and the owners at 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:29.160 the end of the twenty ten season, they locked out 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:32.520 the players, and that's where things really starting to hear it. 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:45.080 You're dealing with that amount of greed where they're already 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:47.480 taken off the top, and then they say that's not enough, 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:50.720 so we're going to rip up the CBA. And the 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:53.400 funny part was the twenty ten season like the last 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.160 year of like the ripped up CBA. Since they didn't 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:57.839 have an agreement on the next year, there was no 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:02.120 salary cap for the twenty ten season, and Jerry Jones, 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:05.280 owner of the Tabloys, and Dan Snyder, owner of the 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:06.280 Washington football team. 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:08.800 Oh god, what what are the worst people ever? By 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:11.120 the way, this is we can we don't time to 0:14:11.200 --> 0:14:12.199 do this right up for like. 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:13.760 One of the worst people ever. 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:16.440 So like if you play Madden before, you know, sometimes 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:18.360 you might turn off the salary cap, and what do 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:21.480 you do you spend? And because Jerry has always been like, 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:23.560 it's my money. Yeah, I'm gonna spend as much of 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:25.000 it as I want to if I please, like within 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:27.960 the rule as the salary cap. No salary cap, Jerry's 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:32.280 gonna stand and the other owners punish those two with 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:37.320 fines after the season. Yeah, for spending recklessly. That's how 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:39.760 committed they are to like this consolidation of power. They 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.080 will publish each other over it, which. 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:45.040 Which by the way, is unhinged because like so one 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:47.520 of the fundamental like issues of the NFL is that 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:48.400 it is a monopoly. 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:48.840 Yes. 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:51.000 Now, the way they get around this is a they 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.840 have the union and be the teams are supposed to 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:55.880 be quote unquote competing with each other and they are 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:59.440 not supposed to quote unquote collude right against the players. 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:04.720 And it's like, okay, you can fight guys for paying people. 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:08.560 Like right, like you find each other for the pain. 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:12.640 Yeah, which is like just unreal. It's just like the 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:14.280 Boy's collusion if. 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:16.160 You look across like to the NBA, where like the 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:18.560 Kawhi Leonard and Steve Balmer stuff. 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:22.440 Is oh my god, another party but. 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:23.880 Another politic exclusive. 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:27.440 But hey, there's a reason why they are aggressively going 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:29.840 after this, you know, because the other billionaires don't want 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:32.880 people rummaging through their ship either, so you know, and 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:35.560 ultimately they like the Microsoft guy being part of the gang, 0:15:35.760 --> 0:15:37.880 so they're not going to do anything. And that's when 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:41.320 you see like, oh wow, there's so much power here 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:43.760 that these guys have. And but going back to the NFL, 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:45.600 like the twenty eleven CBA is. 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:47.920 By the way, CBA is collective bargaining agreement. It's just 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:50.400 there to collective bargaining agreement right between the union and 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:53.160 the league. Right, So if there's no agreement, then like 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:56.840 they can't play football games. Yeah, because you know, like 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.560 you said, like the NFLPA sunctly just exists so the 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:04.120 NFL doesn't get sued for like anti trust stuff, which 0:16:04.280 --> 0:16:06.200 takes us right back to the next point. So going 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:10.160 back to twenty eleven, the players are trying to figure out, 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:12.760 like what are we gonna do about like this lockout 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:17.640 situation because they need to work. Honestly, you know this, 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:19.320 this is a career that you can only do for 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:22.640 most guys like two or three years, and the idea 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:26.960 of missing a season is not really feasible, which the owners, 0:16:27.000 --> 0:16:29.080 you know, they take advantage of all the time, like 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:32.560 they know that these guys are on short like short clocks. 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:35.360 If you if you get to like year five of 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:36.200 an NFL. 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:39.280 Career, you are in a very very small group of 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:43.800 players that like, honestly just represent the elite of the 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:46.320 elite of people who have ever played football like in 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:47.400 this country. 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:49.720 And I think everything about this too is like that's 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:54.400 really important. This is an unbelievably unbelievably skilled labor force. 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:56.240 Yes, and in order to develop these skills, you have 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:57.960 to devote your entire life to it. 0:16:58.200 --> 0:16:58.480 Yes. 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:01.800 And then what you get from devoting your entire life 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:04.800 to this thing that is killing you because you're getting 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:07.840 injured constantly and you're getting head trauma from all of 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:09.960 this every single time. Like, so we started from like 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:13.200 high school, you're starting to get brain damage from concussions, 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:15.640 and from like you're starting to get CTE. Yeah, and 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:18.600 then you have a couple of years to make money 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:20.480 from having devoted your life to this thing. 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:24.879 Right, so think about like it's March of twenty eleven. 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.359 Now Gen upshaws and passed away. For a couple of years, 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:31.040 they were in the Folly in the Demor Smith, in 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:34.439 the the Moore Smith reign of union leadership. And the 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:37.000 first move that the owners make, like now that the 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:39.920 CBA is officially over following the twenty ten season, they 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:42.359 lock out the players, which, as we just said, if 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:45.640 your career is two years, the idea that you missed 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:48.440 one of those years is kind of unfathoous. Yeah, you're 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:51.720 earning power is just like demolished. And let's say you're 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:54.600 you're twenty four years old, you got to play two 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:57.000 years in the NFL. You're walking out with let's say 0:17:57.040 --> 0:17:58.840 a million in your bank account. You still got to 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:01.840 get a job, bro, you know, like you like, you 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:04.239 still got to find something else to do. So like, 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:06.320 this isn't money that's going to set you up for 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:08.200 the rest of your life for most of these guys, 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:10.640 even though it does give you like a nice cushion 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:13.520 to fall off to, even if you're someone who struggled 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:15.240 a little bit. And shoot, I know when I was 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:16.760 twenty four, I would have loved to have like seven 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:19.280 hundred thousand dollars in my main account. Things would have 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:21.560 things could have turned out, you know, maybe a little 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.000 bit different. Probably still would have found something some way 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:27.359 like where I'm right here. But but honestly, it's a 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:32.320 good start. So what the Union did was a decertified 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:36.199 as a union in twenty eleven, led by Tom Brady 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:40.520 and Drew Brees. I'm a Falcons fan, and I will 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:43.560 say this part has given me so much justification on 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:48.160 my hatred Drees. It's like it went past the football 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:51.920 into like the like the material realm of like real life. 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:54.240 You you you guys messed up here. 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:59.119 They tried to you know, challenge the league by DECERTI 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:03.400 finance a union and arguing, uh, you know that now this. 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:05.440 Is an anti trust situation. Blah blah blah blah blah. 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:08.960 Get down to August the time of the twenty eleven CBA 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:12.679 in August of twenty eleven, so like this is a month, 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:17.160 a month before the season, and the concessions that were 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:21.560 made after like after getting locked out for what six. 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:23.120