The NFL collective bargaining agreement (CBA) is a labor agreement which reflects the results of collective bargaining negotiations between the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) and National Football League (NFL) (the commissioner and the 32 teams team owners).
Later negotiations of the collective bargaining agreement called for injury grievances, a guaranteed percentage of revenues for players, an expansion of free agency and other issues impacting the business of the NFL.
[1] After eleven days of work stoppage, the first collective bargaining agreement (CBA) was reached between the NFL and the NFLPA.
[4] In 1974, the veteran NFL players went on strike for five weeks, declaring "No Freedom, No Football," but they received no concessions before reporting to training camp after a two-week "cooling off" period.
[2][6] The strike never resumed, and the NFLPA player representatives voted instead to pursue a previously filed lawsuit, Mackey v. NFL, which challenged the Rozelle Rule restrictions on free agency as a violation of the federal antitrust laws.
The Rozelle Rule was a compensation clause which outlined that a team losing a free agent would get equal value in return.
[4] After players won the Mackey case in court, the NFLPA and the owners settled on a new CBA which implemented a new first refusal and compensation system to replace the Rozelle Rule.
[4] The court decision outlined that compensation for draft picks was to be awarded on the basis of the salaries received by departing free agents.
[1] The agreement reached in 1977 significantly improved some medical and pension benefits for players and gained neutral arbitration of all player/club disputes.
[4] In 1982, after playing the first two games of the season, NFL players went on strike again, seeking to attain a guaranteed percentage of club and league revenues.
[1] The strike ended with a tentative agreement on November 16 which included funds to cover players' lost wages during the work stoppage.
Several well-known players, including Joe Montana, Lawrence Taylor and Tony Dorsett crossed the picket lines to rejoin their teams alongside these new replacements.
[1][2] On October 15, players voted to end the strike, to instead pursue a legal challenge to the free agency restrictions in court.
[1] In January 1988 Judge David Doty sided with the players in ruling that the clubs' continuance of the first refusal and compensation restrictions on free agents was not protected by the labor exemption to the antitrust laws.
[9] In November 1989 the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that team owners were exempt from the federal antitrust laws so long as players were adequately represented by a union.
[1] The NFLPA filed a class action suit in the name of Reggie White, claiming that all players in the NFL should receive money damages as a result of the illegality of Plan B.
Team owners and new NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell demanded a cutback in salaries and benefits under the cap system, promising to lockout the players if no new agreement was reached by March 1, 2011.
The players voted during their 2010 team meetings to end the NFLPA's status as a labor union as of March 1, 2011, unless a new CBA was reached by that time.
[15] Tom Brady of the New England Patriots and Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts were two of the eight named plaintiffs in the action filed in Federal District Court in Minnesota.
[4] In July 2011, as court-ordered mediation continued between players and owners in New York, at the offices of the NFL's lawyers, the 8th Circuit court announced that the Norris–La Guardia Act prohibited it from enjoining the lockout.
After the vote tally was confirmed on July 31, 2011, the NFLPA began six days of bargaining that resulted in a new CBA being signed on August 5, 2011.
[26] A new rookie salary system was implemented by the NFL to limit spending on first-round draft picks,[24] but the savings were reallocated to veteran players.