Steelers safeties take a stand against NFL’s push for a bigger product, ‘They don’t pay us enough’
The NFL, while noted as a sport, is a business at the end of the day. And like every other business, the goal is always to generate as much revenue as possible. So for owners and the league as a whole, the easiest way to do that is to add more games, something most players […]
The NFL, while noted as a sport, is a business at the end of the day.
And like every other business, the goal is always to generate as much revenue as possible.
So for owners and the league as a whole, the easiest way to do that is to add more games, something most players don't want, including the secondary of the Pittsburgh Steelers:
"They're not paying us enough money already," recently signed safety DeShon Elliott told Brooke Pryor of ESPN. "They're stingy with their money, so they want to make us play 18 games, as a player union, we should get way more money than what we're getting — and not just the top guys. And the thing is, they're not out here playing football. They're not here running around putting their bodies on the line. They don't care. All they care about is making money, but if you're going to make money on the top end, the bottom end has to make money too."
The whole reason the league has a player union (much like labor unions) is to negotiate processes like these. The problem is that the current collective bargaining agreement runs through 2030 and the league just moved to 17 games in 2021, yet there is already a push for more.
"Why do we keep adding games?" Fitzpatrick asked Pryor. "I think 17 is more than enough, plus a playoff. … The dudes that play a hundred percent of the snaps in the regular season are probably barely playing in the [bleeped] preseason game, so it doesn't really do too much."
The league tends to peddle that they aim to make the game safer by the day, and they have certainly done that when looking at concussion rates and the integration of technology like guardian caps.
But adding another game is just adding 70-100 more opportunities to get injured.
"You're talking about player safety, but how do you have player safety when you add a game?" starting guard James Daniels told Pryor. "If they were worried about player safety, it would take away games, but it's not about player safety, it's about money and extra games — an extra prime-time game — that brings millions of dollars to the NFL, millions of dollars to cities everywhere. I understand it from both sides."
This issue isn't going anywhere. If there was a way to amend the CBA and pass an 18 game season as soon as 2025, you can bet your bottom dollar the NFL would have already done it.
But for now, they may be stuck with 17 over the next half-decade.
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