Labor Day the Collective Way

Welcome back to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week in observance of Labor Day your hosts put the relationship between the NFL and labor rights and conditions under the microscope. A chronology of relations between the league and NFLPA sets the table: a look at work stoppages in 1982 and 1987 and the fallout and legacy of each, the famous collection of scab players that crossed the picket line, the legal fights that give way to the implementation of free agency, and the touchy historical maneuvering that grants the league certain antitrust protections. This gives way to the consideration of a column from former league player, NFLPA executive and now writer and on-air talent for ESPN Domonique Foxworth that outlines his belief in how and why decertification of the NFLPA would be beneficial to the union’s membership. Foxworth contends the downsides of decertification: agent regulation, the financial risks in transitioning from union to association and the prospect of a separate entity unionizing the players and ratifying a new CBA, are outweighed by the fact that as advertising and television revenues have made the league’s owners richer and more entrenched than ever before, it is only the sport’s elite class that has benefitted financially, and in Foxworth’s own words, those whose share has not grown “deserve to negotiate on a level playing field.” Consider it Labor Day the Collective way, but not before we throw three fists to the face of sports and politics with another fresh trio of rants, where Ed zags positive in celebration of Renee Montgomery and her direct role in the most recent chapter in Kelly Loeffler’s demise, Andrew welcomes(?) an MLB journalist to the #resistance following his bitch-slap of a “proud father” and D-list Trump flunky on Twitter, and Zak leads us into the main topic in examining the controversial vaccination sentiments from friend-of-the-program Urban Meyer that produced (from this panel) an abnormal round of agreement, while conversely drawing considerable ire from the NFLPA.