Former Jaguars’ Running Back Fred Taylor: ‘The Current Proposed CBA Is Awful’
Current NFL players have taken to social media at every turn this offseason to express their views on the negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement between the NFL Players Association and the league's owners. And now, even former players are making their voices heard.
Former Jacksonville Jaguars running back Fred Taylor, who played in the NFL from 1998-2010, took to Twitter on Friday to give his take on the newly proposed CBA that players are set to vote on over the next week. Taylor pointed out that the proposal has several flaws that would make him wary of agreeing to it.
"The current proposed CBA is awful," Taylor tweeted. "An extension of a bad 2011 deal that gave away players leverage."
The issues Taylor described with the proposal, which can be found in its entirety here, include the length of the deal, the revenue sharing, and more.
Taylor isn't the only person with Jaguars ties who doesn't appear to support the proposed CBA, which would include a 17th regular season game. Jaguars defensive back Douglas Middleton tweeted on Thursday that he also plans to vote no on the proposal, joining a legion of other players who have spoken out against the deal.
"The NFLPA has sent out official ballots to every NFL player who was a dues paying member in the 2019 season to cast their vote on a new collective bargaining agreement," the NFLPA said in a statement earlier this week. "As outlined in our constitution, ratification of a new deal is subject to approval by a majority of our members who vote.
"The voting will be open until Thursday, March 12 at 11:59 p.m. EST. Player ballots will be confidential and will be received by an independent auditor to ensure the integrity of the process. We encourage every NFL player to review the full collective bargaining agreement and exercise their democratic right to vote."
The CBA's passing would require majority approval from the voting members of the NFLPA.
Included in the CBA is an expanded 17-game regular season that could begin as early as 2021 and an expanded postseason with one additional team from each conference making the playoffs starting in 2020. The new playoff format would include three Wild Card round games for each conference and only the top seed in each conference would receive a first-round bye.
