The NFL was caught with its hand in the collusion cookie jar, as to the issue of fully-guaranteed contracts for players. And even though the arbitrator erroneously accepted the NFL’s position that it was eating no collusion cookies, the NFL apparently has learned from the experience.
The historical collusion/coordination extends beyond players. For years, it has been believed that owners collude regarding coaching pay, keeping the salaries down in the absence of a union or a salary cap. Apparently, they were coordinating/colluding elsewhere.
Per multiple sources, the NFL has shared on an annual basis salary data for every non-player position — from head coach to G.M. to area scouts to dietician to assistant athletic trainer. The league broke the information down by listing the high, the low, the median, and the average for every job in every NFL team.
This year, that ended. And the official position is that the information is no longer being provided for legal reasons.
It’s smart. Previously, it was dumb. Compiling and providing salary data among 32 independent businesses is per se coordination/collusion. And the league has been susceptible to an antitrust claim (or class action) from non-player employees impacted by the effort to limit competition for employee services.
Of course, the unavailability of the spreadsheet doesn’t mean the practice of coordination/collusion has ended. The league is simply making it harder to prove it by eliminating what would be clear and obvious evidence of collusion.
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