Two weeks after news broke that the NFL encouraged team owners to limit guaranteed money in player contracts, ESPN has reported that the players’ union worked in tandem with the league to hide crucial details from players of an arbitration ruling regarding the alleged collusion.
Per the report from ESPN published Wednesday, NFLPA leadership reached a confidentiality agreement with the NFL to keep secret the details of a 61-page ruling by arbitrator Christopher Droney that determined that league executives including commissioner Roger Goodell urged team owners to reduce guaranteed player compensation.
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The hearing took place in the wake of a fully guaranteed $230 million contract between quarterback Deshaun Watson and the Cleveland Browns. That 61-page ruling has since been revealed in reporting by journalists Pablo Torre and Mike Florio.
In his ruling, Droney determined that the NFLPA showed “by a clear preponderance of the evidence” that Goodell and NFL general counsel Jeff Pash urged teams to reduce guaranteed money in player contracts.
“There is little question that the NFL Management Council, with the blessing of the Commissioner, encouraged the 32 NFL Clubs to reduce guarantees in veterans’ contracts at the March 2022 annual owners’ meeting,” Droney’s ruling reads, per Torre and Florio.
Despite reaching that conclusion, Droney ruled in favor of the NFL, declaring that he could not prove by a “clear preponderance” that NFL teams acted on that advice.
QBs since Watson have not received full guarantees
Since Watson signed his contract, quarterbacks including Kyler Murray, Russell Wilson and now two-time MVP Lamar Jackson have signed lucrative contracts. None of them included fully guaranteed money such as Watson’s. Jackson re-signed with the Ravens following prolonged negotiations and didn’t receive a competing offer despite being the rare elite quarterback to be eligible to negotiate with other teams.
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What ESPN’s reporting states is that the NFLPA reached a confidentiality agreement with the NFL to suppress such details as Droney’s determination that the league encouraged owners to reduce contract guarantees.
The confidentially agreement is in conflict with the collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and NFLPA that states that that members of the NFLPA’s executive committee and player reps have the right to receive copies of all arbitration rulings.
What the confidentiality agreement reportedly states
Per the terms of the agreement, the 61-page ruling “was to be shared only with league and union lawyers and a handful of senior union and league executives while the NFLPA considered its next legal move,” according to the report.
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Droney was aware of the confidentiality agreement, per the report, citing multiple sources. He declined to comment to ESPN, per the report.
Instead, per the report, players were informed of the broad strokes of the ruling, including that Droney ultimately ruled in favor of the NFL. Why the NFLPA would have done this is not clear.
But the report casts a further shadow over executive director Lloyd Howell Jr., who has been under increased scrutiny since taking the role in 2023. From ESPN’s report, citing “several sources” who were briefed on a meeting between Howell and the NFLPA’s executive committee of 10 active players and president Jalen Reeves-Maybin:
“Howell informed the committee that the NFLPA had lost its collusion grievance but did not share any details of Droney’s findings or share copies of the ruling with the players. Instead, he blamed his predecessor, DeMaurice Smith, for wasting resources on the three-year legal battle.”
To provide context for the gravity of the reported confidentiality agreement, ESPN spoke with Peter Ginsberg, a longtime attorney who has represented NFL players.
“As the head of the union, Lloyd has an obligation to protect the best interests of the players,” Ginsberg said. “By agreeing to a confidentiality agreement, the union purposefully blocked the players from receiving crucial information about the operations of the NFL.
“The NFL and the union should not be conspiring together to keep important information from the players.”
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NFLPA is filing an appeal
Citing an unnamed senior union source, ESPN reported on Wednesday that the NFLPA decided on Tuesday to appeal Droney’s ruling, nearly six months after it was issued and two weeks after Torre’s and Florio’s reports made the full contents of his ruling public.
“The appeal is a reflection of our obligation to enforce the CBA and our commitment to protecting our players’ interests,” the source said, per ESPN. “We’ll do what’s best for players, and we’ll exhaust our options in doing so.”
The NFLPA declined to answer questions on the record from ESPN regarding the grounds for its appeal or why it waited until Tuesday to file it, according to the report. An NFL spokesperson also declined comment to ESPN on Wednesday, per the report.
Howell has not publicly addressed the findings of ESPN’s report.
