Too Too Sad and it Ain't no Joke
A new CBA, an expedient appeal, indirect dialogues, and the NF takes some more Ls
In the history of hip hop, perhaps no song has been sampled more than Syl Johnson’s “Different Strokes.” Artists to include elements from it in their works include Tupac Shakur and the Wu-Tang Clan. The past two weeks on the North American sports labor beat have produced some news that fits with one of the lyrics of the song in that it’s too, too sad to be a joke.
Johnson passed away over the weekend at 85 years old. That’s of especial relevance for Chicagoans, as he broke into the music business and lived in the city for most of his life.
An NWSL CBA now exists
At the 11th hour, the National Women’s Soccer League and the NWSL Players Association got a deal done on the first PA contract in the league’s history. NWSLPA members unanimously have celebrated its very existence and its tenets as wins. As it’s their contract, their opinion is really the only one that matters.
The PA says it will post the entirety of the document online for public dissemination. Dan Lauletta has some insight on it for The Equalizer. As I have not yet seen the entire thing, my opinions are tentative based on available information.
The five-year length probably represents a compromise. It’s longer than I would have preferred but I wasn’t in the room and my livelihood isn’t at stake. I can see some facets that, depending on how franchise owners conduct themselves, set up as a Tropical Race 4.
No, that isn’t a competition “reality” TV show where teams travel around the equator. It’s a name for a fungal infection that currently threatens our planet’s supply of bananas. Yep, bananas could go extinct in the near future and it’s something to watch out for in the NWSL, too.
Tropical Race 4 is essentially a fungal infection that splits banana tree stems and turns the leaves yellow, leaving the plant unable to photosynthesize. It’s a massive problem because almost all of the world’s bananas are of the Cavendish variety. They reproduce asexually.
Because they’re all clones of the original Cavendish banana, they’re all equally susceptible to Tropical Race 4. The fungus can be present as deep as 10 feet below the soil’s surface so it can spread quickly. Just one infected banana can spread the fungus to an entire plantation by hitting the soil near a tree.
We do have effective herbicides against the fungus but this wouldn’t be the first time a fungal disease has eradicated an entire species of banana. An earlier incarnation did the same thing to the Gros Michel banana in the 1950s.
So, what does all of that have to do with the NWSL’s CBA? Again, without seeing all the terms of the deal, this might be a simplistic reading. There are possibilities for the reality of the contract to play out as a clone of other North American sports leagues like MLB, though. The suspect elements are:
A hard salary cap for each club
Free agency based on service time
Revenue-sharing based on profitability
While the CBA does have minimum player salaries for each season specified, the real downside to salary caps is that they serve as a ready-made excuse for teams to skimp on player salaries. That’s especially true for players who hit free agency and aren’t in the elite talent strata.
Again, without having seen the full document, it looks like there’s nothing to stop franchise owners from touting huge paydays for the top five or six players in the league while the vast majority of the league’s players make the league minimum or just over it. Additionally, it looks like owners could simply opt not to sign most players when they hit free agency as players with less service time will probably fill those roster spots far less expensively.
Additionally, the language around the provision for possible revenue-sharing between the league and PA will be worth a serious look. Lauletta says that the PA could get 10% of net broadcast revenues beginning in 2024 should the league turn a profit.
Hopefully, the contract has very clear language about who gets to determine whether a profit was turned in a year’s time and if so how much plus what expenses the league can count against its revenue to detract from that potential profit. If this part of the contract is vague, the players will probably have to take the league to court to get a solitary penny.
That is probably language the parties will visit again in 2026. Other news represents a labor dispute that the NWSL hopefully doesn’t become a Cavendish clone of.
MLB owners are too, too sad
The past two weeks in the ongoing struggle to get a contract done for Major League Baseball has made it pretty obvious that the owners have no strategy besides simply doing everything they can to maintain the status quo in almost all phases. The most recent sequence of events makes it quite clear.
Instead of coming to bargaining asking for an expanded postseason and offering something like, say, a massive increase in minimum salaries over the course of a new contract, the owners are doing below the minimum. They’re doing absolutely nothing because there is no strategy outside of maybe simple resistance of anything the PA pushes for.
Through nearly two months of the owner-initiated lockout they are maintaining, the owners have spent all of about five hours spent in actual negotiations with the MLBPA. Despite that, the owners recently tried to spin the proceedings as hopeless by requesting federal mediation.
Shortly thereafter, the owners announced they would not be submitting a counterproposal to the PA’s latest offer. The PA rejected bringing in a mediator because it was nothing but an obvious PR move by the owners that would waste everyone’s time.
It’s difficult to negotiate when you have no plan. That’s why the owners wanted to bring in the mediator, do nothing, then run to their water carriers in the press and tout the mediator’s presence as them “trying everything” and the PA being obstinate. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The most ludicrous aspect of the owners’ weak spin attempt is that it didn’t even make sense. A federal mediator can’t end any lockouts. The owners are the only party who can do that and nothing is stopping them from doing so at any moment.
Just as the dialogue between the owners and the PA is happening indirectly through media, the same has been going on in the WNBA. Comments from two people with ties to the Las Vegas Aces are of interest.
Mark Davis’ revelation and the fallout
Las Vegas Aces principal owner Mark Davis recently revealed that not only is new Aces head coach Becky Hammon the highest-paid in that role in the league’s history but she’s the first to average seven figures per year in annual salary.
It’s long overdue and, hopefully, that results in others joining her at that threshold soon. It also prompted a reaction by former Aces player Liz Cambage.
Cambage is absolutely right that in comparison to other North American sports leagues, the disparity between coach and player salaries on the high end is way outside the norm in the W. When questioned about Cambage’s remarks, Davis said he absolutely agrees with her.
It’s easy to say that in front of the press. It’s an entirely different matter for Davis to put pressure on other WNBA franchise owners to increase player compensation and charter flights for all league travel behind closed doors. Speaking of behind closed doors…
Brian Flores revives hopes for a day of reckoning
Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores has been making the media rounds after filing what he hopes will be a class-action lawsuit against the NFL, alleging he was the victim of illegal racial discrimination. Although there are several points to the complaint, the one that has gotten the most press is the allegation that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered Flores a $100,000 bonus for each game he was willing to do all he could to lose.
The NFL immediately denied all of Flores’ allegations but has since informed member clubs that it will conduct an investigation into what it calls unacceptable diversity hiring results and the very tanking allegations Flores raised the alarm about. Not exactly inspiring confidence in the “completely unfounded” response to Flores’ lawsuit.
It’s super-easy for me to say this from where I’m sitting, with no real horse in the race, but I’ve never wanted a civil court trial to go through full discovery and actual oral arguments with cameras in the room worse. Each time so far, the NFL has been able to avoid public scrutiny by setting similar complaints that had the potential to bring a day of reckoning to the NFL.
It’s hard to blame Flores and other possible plaintiffs if he/they decide(s) to settle. But it would be such amazing justice to see the disgusting character everyone knows NFL franchise owners and league executives have come into the undeniable light of day.
There’s more stuff that the NFL would rather keep quiet that we all know is vile.
Washington Commanders ex-employees share their stories
Last week, ex-employees who say they were abused and harassed while on the job for the Washington Commanders NFL franchise shared their accounts with members of the US Congress and the media. Among the media outlets sharing stories, some for the first time, was the Real Sports Podcast.
Meanwhile, Commanders principal owner Dan Snyder was showing off the team’s new branding and the NFL responded to the Congressional hearing by deciding Snyder gets to determine what if any information from the league’s own investigation into the abuse claims under his watch becomes public. Some of the allegations are against Snyder himself.
Finally, a bit of litigation news: the 3rd Circuit Court is taking the next step in what could very well put campus athletic workers as plaintiffs before the US Supreme Court again. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals granted the NCAA’s appeal of a lower-court decision that classified those workers as employees of the NCAA and the member institutions they labor for.
It’s uncertain how quickly the wheels will kick into high-gear there but it could merely be the second act of a three-act drama. Whichever side loses will likely ask the Supremes for review. That seems more likely to actually happen if the 3rd upholds the trial court’s ruling as that would create somewhat of a circuit split on the subject. If the Supremes do grant cert, I caution anyone to read too much into the court’s opinion in Alston v. NCAA and look at that as a guarantee of a win for the plaintiffs.
Whether athletes are employees of the NCAA and its members for the purposes of the Fair Labor and Standards Act and whether a national cap on academic-related benefits violates antitrust law are not at all the same thing. That was all that the Supremes’ decision in Alston really settled.
You’ve been great. Enjoy some Syl Johnson. His music is no joke.