I am always surprised when I hear fans say one of the following statements

" Players are overpaid", " No one is worth Millions to play a game", " The players union is wrecking the game", or "The players should take less during a recession".  In the real world the players and owners have agreed to a salary cap for each team. Players have given up rights to be free agents. Owners have agreed to split the revenues with the players. If revenues decrease then so do players salaries.  All has been well for 20 years.  Revenues are still increasing.  The league is making more money than ever.  But the owners feel that the future is not going well for them.  They want change.

This isn't going to be a Bash the Owners article.  It is meant to identify the largest source of disagreement between the owners and players.  And believe it or not it is not the Salaries of the players.  More after the jump.

Finding a really good NFL player is difficult.  There are over 7500 college  division I football players at any one time. And one quarter of those turn over every year.  There are only 1,800 NFL jobs available and those players turn over at a rate of around 400-500 per year. But of those 1,800 NFL jobs there are only 700 starting positions.  And those players are hard to find.  And they don't turn over at the same rate.  They are special players.  Very Special.

That is why the first round of the draft pays so much.  Those selected are evaluated as having starter potential.  32 players in all.  And of those 1/2 will not start.  These are just facts.  It shows how extremely difficult it is to find quality NFL players.  Those special players have value.  A lot of value.  You pay a lot of money to support your team.  You want to root for special players.  They make a team special.

When an owner finds one of those players he does not want to let him go.  In most businesses an employee signs a contract to work for a company and has the right to leave ( with certain limited anti-compete clauses) that employment,  for more money elsewhere..  But when all the employers are a group under a common banner (NFL) it serves the group well if players are not allowed to flit between teams asking for more and more money.  This has nothing to do with talent or worth,  it just becomes good business not to raise the price of the most talented people.

Under the laws of the United States it is considered illegal to limit a market or employee rights or to set prices as a business group.  The laws that were written to protect the public from this behavior are called the anti-trust laws of the United States. The NFL must abide by these laws.  All of the NFL's labor contracts violate this law.  Basically it is illegal to keep players from being able to shop their services in an environment that isn't clouded with collusion between the owners.  Major League Baseball when presented with this problem years ago simply went to Congress and was awarded an exemption to the Anti-Trust laws.  No other Sports Franchise has this distinction. 

Now there is one exception to the anti-trust rule.  If a group (NFL) and its employees ( players association) agree to a contract that violates the anti-trust laws then it is OK because everyone is agreed and everyone had the same bargaining power.  In other words, the only reason unrestricted free agency isn't the absolute norm for every player who's contract is up is because the owners and players association agreed to it.  Without the CBA  (collective bargaining agreement) owners will face unlimited unrestricted free agency, no franchise tags, no transition tags, and Triple Damages for any and all damages caused to individual players after the CBA expires.  This should end up costing the owners more in salaries, fan backlash, and legal costs than any money they save by operating without a new labor agreement.

This is not news.  It is the same fight that caused all the labor unrest in the NFL for the last 25 years. But it seems like the players never get credit for giving up their right to a free market.  For giving up their right to be paid what they are truly worth each and every year of their short careers. The players gave up that right in exchange for a 60% of the  revenue of the league. They also agreed to minimum salaries of players and benefits to retired players that have been injured.   If revenue goes down, So do the players contract amount. This 60 % figure is what the owners have been paying for the last 20 years. Players salaries have never gone down.  Why? Because the owners revenue have never gone down. A salary cap and free agency restrictions have more to do with limiting salaries than anything else.  Both of these are the key items that the players gave up when they signed the contract.

The owners should be very afraid of the CBA terminating March 4th, 2011. At that time the players and owners will be at a standstill over basic employee rights. Certain owners will be able to spend all the money they have for special players. Certain owners will spend very little and put little of their profits into players salaries.  No minimum salaries will mean that marginal players will be paid way less than the current minimum. 

The players are in danger, retired players are in danger, and the league is in danger.  It wasn't pretty 20 years ago and it won't be pretty this time.