While the NFLPA agreed yesterday to extend the voting two more days for the Collective Bargaining Agreement that is on the table, which now runs through to the end of the week, that will not help any of the players who have already voted, and would now like to change their vote.
This is apparently a not insignificant number of players. In fact, according to reports, so many players contacted the union to ask if they were able to change their votes that it had to go to the board of player representatives. They ultimately voted to decide that players are not able to change their votes once cast.
Considering that voting is still ongoing for several more days, and considering the fact that the vast majority of those voting are doing so to determine the parameters of the rules under which they will play the remainder of their careers, one might be inclined to think that they should have the full amount of time allotted to them to make their decision, and to change their decision if necessary.
Surely many will disagree with this. After all, that’s not generally how these things work, and we have some recent examples in politics. During the 2020 Democratic primaries, some of those who voted by mail-in ballot for last week’s Super Tuesday states ended up voting for candidates who’d dropped out, or in ways different than they would have on election day. A large percentage of those who voted at the polls made their decision that day.
When England held a referendum vote over whether or not to remain a part of the European Union, many who voted very quickly after the vote had been tallied decided that they did not feel as though they voted from a properly educated position. A large number came to regret their votes, and one wonders if the voting had been done later if the country would not be in the process of Brexiting now.
In this case, players were given roughly a week or so to go over a document over 400 pages long without a substantial amount of guidance as to the nuances of the deal provided to them by the union. The NFLPA has since put out a fact sheet to help players, and extended the deadline for voting by two days, but reportedly over 1000 players have already voted.
Still, there are roughly another 1500 players remaining to vote. It is unclear whether or not those who wish to change their vote swing more toward shifting from approval to disapproval or vice versa, and chances are we will never know.
