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Jamal Adams did nothing wrong. There was no reason . . .
. . . for him to take down his tweet from Wednesday.
Jamal Adams tweeted his support for the new CBA proposal which would lead to a 17-game season and higher pay for the players.
“More Regular Season Games + More Playoff Games = More money for the league & players, everybody wins,” tweeted Adams.
San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman, who is a player union rep, tweeted at Adams, “Call me brother. It’s never that simple. Gotta go deeper than that in this.”
Adams took down his tweet and called Sherman.
Sherman is 31, has made close to $70 million in his career, and is close to retirement.
Another vocal opponent of the 17-game schedule is Los Angeles Chargers offensive tackle Russell Okung, who is 32, and has made $94.5 million in his career thus far.
They have made most of their NFL money, and both have had a number of injuries, and are getting older, so there is no way they would want to play a 17th regular season game.
But who are these fabulously wealthy veterans, to tell young players, looking to earn their fair share, they aren’t entitled to make a lot more money with a new CBA that includes a 17th game.
They will tell you they are concerned about safety, but is the extra game really going to make a big difference in the amount of injuries?
And the NFL is going to cut out one preseason game in the proposal and also cut back on off-season and training camp work.
To Adams credit, he didn’t totally back off his original position after talking to Sherman.
“I still think it would be dope to add an extra game,” tweeted Adams on Thursday. “But I do understand there’s more to it!”
This just in – football is a dangerous sport. It’s safer than it used to be thanks to better equipment and stricter rules on how you can hit people, but it’s still dangerous.
Anybody who steps on an NFL field is risking their health every week, but they know what they signed up for.
If they can make a lot more money with an extra game, go for it. Because one of the issues related to player earning power is they are often stuck in their rookie contracts for 3-5 years, and it’s their second contract that’s most lucrative.
But the average NFL career is about 3-4 years, so most players don’t make it to that second contract, which is often the biggest pay day.
So in this new CBA proposal, the players will get paid a lot better in the first 3-4 years, which will benefit a lion’s share of the rank-and-file, many of whom will never see that second huge contract.
The league is offering the plays 48.5 percent of the NFL earnings pot if they agree to a 17-game season. In the current CBA, they get 47 percent.
The minimum salaries are going to get a big bump. This is important to the a lot of the players, who might not be superstars.
Another vocal opponent of the 17-game season is Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt, who will turn 31 next month, and has made $85 million his career. Do you think a 31-year-old player, who has myriad surgeries in his career, wants to play 17 games? Of course not.
My point is simple. You have older players saying “no,” but they made their money already, and are late in their careers, their bodies don’t feel great, and there is no way they want an extra game.
But the younger generation of players, like Adams, should have a bigger voice in his. And remember, most of the team union reps are older veterans.
No Richard, Jamal doesn’t need to “go deeper” than that. He knows what a 17-game entails, and he know the extra money it will bring, and he’s all for it.
February 22, 2020
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