Remember the Day, Children, in Which the Wall Street Journal Published the Only Pro-Union Op-Ed in Its History

From NFL head Roger Goodell: 

Rather than address the challenge of improving the collective-bargaining agreement for the benefit of the game, the union-financed lawsuit attacks virtually every aspect of the current system including the draft, the salary cap and free-agency rules, which collectively have been responsible for the quality and popularity of the game for nearly two decades. A union victory threatens to overturn the carefully constructed system of competitive balance that makes NFL games and championship races so unpredictable and exciting. In the union lawyers’ world, every player would enter the league as an unrestricted free agent, an independent contractor free to sell his services to any team. Every player would again become an unrestricted free agent each time his contract expired. And each team would be free to spend as much or as little as it wanted on player payroll or on an individual player’s compensation. Any league-wide rule relating to terms of player employment would be subject to antitrust challenge in courts throughout the country. Any player could sue—on his own behalf or representing a class—to challenge any league rule that he believes unreasonably restricts the “market” for his services. Under this vision, players and fans would have none of the protections or benefits that only a union (through a collective-bargaining agreement) can deliver.

  • The Wall Street Journal

Notes

  1. This was featured in #Politics
  2. markcoatney posted this