To former NFL quarterback Matt Schaub, leverage is everything. Creating that leverage means considering every idea possible, even a brand-new football league. Making the case to lead the NFLPA, Schaub penned an article for Go Long that stated his case, aired his grievances, and suggested radical proposals. None bigger than a new professional league.
“To get leverage for our side, we need to have a plan to walk away from what the owners offer us if it’s not in good faith. We must have an alternate way to make the money we deserve. I’m not talking about holding out or going on strike. If you know the history of the NFLPA, you know that strikes don’t work. They never have. Ever.
Rather, we have to play football. Whether it’s for a league that WE organize or one that is sponsored by another group or company, we have to play. That’s the only way to make real money. It’s the only way to put fear in the owners.”
The NFL has seen labor peace since the 2011 lockout, though the consensus is the owners have won the recent CBAs negotiated with the players and the player’s union. The NFL could soon return to the table in search of adding an 18th game to the regular season calendar, while the current CBA expires at the end of the decade. In a sports world moving fast with leaps in salary cap, technology like AI, and the game’s global expansion, the upcoming negotiations will prove vital.
Schaub noted the ineffectiveness the union has had in putting pressure on the owners. The 2011 lockout ended when players ran out of money and needed to start the season. The NFLPA has tried to avoid those missteps by withholding each players “Madden Money,” the check received at the start of each year for each player’s likeness used in the Madden series, but the owners still hold plenty of leverage.
Schaub is attempting to fill the vacuum of NFLPA leadership after Lloyd Howell stepped down as head of the union, while interim David White has come with plenty of controversy. In the opening of his letter, Schaub sent a direct message to stars like T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward.
“If I were the Executive Director of the NFLPA, one of the first things I’d do is ask Patrick Mahomes, T.J. Watt, Micah Parsons, Josh Allen, Cam Heyward, Lamar Jackson, and a bunch of other NFL stars to visit Saudi Arabia.”
His rationale compared what LIV Golf did as a competitor to the PGA. Perhaps there’s no bad ideas in a brainstorm, but Schaub’s suggestion of a new league, even backed by wealthy international investors, borders on unrealistic. Creating a new league on the fly seems impossible, and a new football league comes with plenty more complication than golf. New stadiums, new uniforms, handling contracts for thousands of players, it’s a bluff owners would readily call out. Even creating a smaller-scale idea like a flag football league (NBA stars like LeBron James and Kevin Duran attempted this during the 2011 NBA lockout) wouldn’t come close to the attention the NFL receives.
It’s clear the NFLPA needs new leadership and a clean slate. Schaub might offer that. But the NFL 2.0 is one idea that isn’t going to fly.
