Steelers, Rest of NFL Players React to Recent Proposal to Hold 35% of Player Salaries in 2020
NFL Network's Tom Pelissero reported Tuesday the NFLPA informed its board of representatives today that the NFL proposed 35% of player salaries be held in escrow to help manage costs during the 2020 season.
The development comes with just over two months until the NFL season is scheduled to be underway, and no apparent end in sight for the social rules surrounded by COVID-19. The league has taken a handful of steps in preparation of an altered season, including eliminating half of four scheduled preseason games (with potential to discard the other two) and using the first 6-8 rows as advertisement opportunities to make up for lost revenue.
Despite the following "precautions" taken, the league has yet to publicly reveal/line-up the gameplan for further impacts from coronavirus. Admittedly so, the timeline is difficult to predict with such a cloudy future.
With Pelissero's most recent report, fans are beginning to receive heavy baseball vibes after the MLB/MLBPA tasseled for weeks over player salaries while losing a significant amount of games. While the NFL still has wiggle room before games and thus revenue are lost, it's concerning nonetheless a possible showdown between the NFL/NFLPA may prevent football from happening.
NFLPA executive Don Davis reacted to the proposal by telling the league to "kick rocks", per another tweet from Pelissero.
With a potential of 35% of player salaries, you can imagine the reaction from players around the league.
A handful of Pittsburgh Steelers threw their two cents in on the matter, whether it be personally venting their opinion on retweeting their agency's opinion.
Joe Haden:
Cam Heyward retweeting his agent:
Ryan Switzer following suit:
Devin Bush:
The proposal is still relatively fresh, so more reactions from players in Pittsburgh and around the league are expected within the next few days.
While training camps are still scheduled to begin at the end of July, only time will tell if the NFL and NFLPA are needed to lock horns. If negotiations come down to money (which they likely will with the projected lost revenue), it appears as if an overwhelming amount of players are willing to sit out if not paid their due salaries. On the other side of the coin, however, we've seen the owners emerge victorious in many of these scenarios before, including Major League Baseball.
For various reasons, the next two months leading up to the beginning of the regular season is set to be a wild one.
Donnie Druin is a Staff Writer with AllSteelers. Follow Donnie on Twitter @DonnieDruin, and AllSteelers @si_steelers.
