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Dining In The 80’s:
I Love It When A Plan Comes Together
by Chris Brophy
1/11/2008
Welcome back to the 80’s. It was the days of The A-Team with Hannibal Smith, Face, Howling Mad Murdoch and BA Baracus going around and shooting up half of America without anyone receiving so much of as a scratch. So pour yourself a glass of milk (I promise it doesn’t having a sleeping agent in it), prepare to be thrown over a car bonnet in slow motion after being rescued from the local asylum as the Diner takes you back to a time of labour disputes and dramatic change on the player movement landscape.
As I developed my interest in the NFL in the 80’s, one of the things that drew my interest was how players moved about in the league. From the college draft to trades, it was a different world from what I was used to in the British sporting arena where sports such as soccer and rugby (league) used money transfers as the accepted method for player movement.
Much like the soccer world was changed forever by the Bosman ruling, the NFL finally reached a watershed in the early 90’s where everything had to change or the entire system would collapse but that was only the end result of years of wrangling and what happened during the 80’s was a major part of how things changed forever.
Pro football started out with a system similar to baseball and without boring you with the details, it pretty much meant players couldn’t move without being traded or being released. In 1963, the Rozelle Rule was adopted which brought in compensation for teams who lost free agents but it did little to improve the ability of a player to ply his trade where he saw fit.
The 1970’s saw the threat of strike action several times including a two day walk out in 1974 but the threat of a lockout by the NFL owners soon put a stop to that. With the merger of the AFL and NFL, both leagues unions had also had to merge and it took time to gain stable leadership and organization. The union gained legal victories in the 70’s but a lot of members weren’t paying their dues and a failure to stand completely together meant these victories were never fully capitalized on.
One of those victories was the The Rozell Rule being declared illegal. With that victory, the union had been able to strike a new collective bargaining agreement that seen player compensation to teams tied in with player salary but the increases in revenue for the league had not been foreseen and it just meant that for a player to move, teams were still entitled to heavy compensation that other teams just weren’t prepared to pay. Basically, the rules had changed but in effect, nothing had changed.
By the time a new collective bargaining agreement was needed in 1982, the players had had enough and things came to ahead. The owners wouldn’t budge on a percentage due to the threat of the newly formed rival league the USFL – being able to cherry pick players so the players finally decided to go ahead with a strike and after week 2 of the season they walked out. The owners responded by closing down operations completely on the 21st September meaning players could not use team facilities.
The season looked in serious peril but finally, on the brink of the season being cancelled, the owners gave a little and increased their offer to the players in a temporary arrangement to get them back on the field. Once the season was back on track (with only 9 regular season games played and an expanded play-off format) a new CBA was eventually signed later that year.
It still wasn’t perfect though, the players union was now led by Gene Upshaw and a survey of players still found true free agency to be their highest priority. Come 1987, it was time once again to do a new deal but the owners wouldn’t budge on free agency. The threat of the USFL had faded quickly meaning the NFL still had the monopoly on pro football and this meant the owners felt they held all the trump cards.
The players voted for a strike in the spring of 1987, hoping the looming threat would get the owners to waiver. However, the owners went for a completely different tactic. The TV deals they had struck in the meantime meant that if they could not provide games at any time then they would be subjected to a huge loss in income (TV deals had changed because of the previous strike, the networks now paid on a pay as you play basis rather than coughing up in advance).
So even before the strike began, the owners set in motion plans to use replacement players. When the players did walk after Week 2 of the 1987 season Week 3 was cancelled (and not replaced) and then the following three games were played by replacement (or scabs as they were more commonly referred to) players.
Realising the owners had the monopoly and would go to any lengths to protect it, the strike was called off. If this fight was going to be won, it would have to be done through the courts and the same day the strike ended, the NFLPA filed an antitrust lawsuit.
 The owners tried to stem the tide after losing in court when Judge David Doty ruled in the players favour (without an agreement in place, the owners had no right to restrict movement) with a new form of free agency called Plan B (so called because traditionally restricted free agency was Plan A) that started after the end of the 1988 season whilst the appeal process to that court ruling got underway. Effectively, teams could protect their rights to any 37 players on their roster (whether under contract or not if a player was out of contract, being on the protected list meant his current team maintained the right of first refusal) whilst they would allow everyone else to go onto the open market. The Plan B window was for a couple of months and players not signed by other teams were guaranteed a small pay increase if their old team wanted them back.
The problem with Plan B was twofold. Firstly, teams mainly protected younger talent with more future potential so because of a lack of a salary cap, the richer teams could afford to lure veteran talent away or outbid rivals. Secondly, those same teams could get away with leaving their veterans unprotected allowing them same players the knowledge they would get pay increases when they returned and the team would be boosted by new talent hence increasing their chances to win.
It’s no co-incidence two of the most success teams of that era, the 49ers and Redskins, were big players in Plan B. The Redskins especially were very active players. Five of their starting defense in Super Bowl XXVI had come via Plan B including three of the starting secondary. They also had added key reserves to improve depth whilst getting away with leaving important players like many of the veteran Hogs (Joe Jacoby, Russ Grimm and Jeff Bostic – all multiyear starters – were left on the Redskins unprotected list for several years in succession) on their unprotected list.
It’s strange to think of a system like this looking back. For an idea of what it meant, players who would go on to become legends of their era or future Hall Of Famers moved within this system whilst their teams protected younger talent that may or may not have gone on to achieve anything. Ronnie Lott and Roger Craig moved from the 49ers to the Raiders. The 49ers had previously signed veteran LB Matt Millen away from the Raiders to help with their run to Super Bowl XXIV.
Some bargains were to be had too. The Dallas Cowboys got one of their key offensive pieces which would go on to have Super Bowl success, in TE Jay Novacek as a Plan B free agent from the Cardinals where he had failed to establish himself and struggled with injuries.
 Overall though, the majority of players hated the scheme because it seen lesser players being rewarded both in terms of the dollars they could command and the freedom of choice in who they played for whilst protected players were forced to sit tight. Of the unprotected players, about 25% of them were moving teams gaining an average of 40% in increased pay.
Plan A movement was still rare, Wilbur Marshall had moved from the Bears to the Redskins in 1988 at the cost of two first round choices to the Bears from the Redskins but only Bills defensive end Bruce Smith and Oilers defensive lineman Ray Childress ever received offers in the same period. If you are looking for a modern day comparison, Plan A is the equivalent of the franchise tag now used in modern day free agency except the player was only guaranteed a small pay increase rather than a salary that is the average of the top five at his respective position.
The failure of the 1987 strike had left the owners feeling extremely confident in their position. They had played hardball and won but the players union kept up the fight. The court appeal reversed the ruling in favour of the players in 1989 stating that the players had to choose between the union and their own right to strike under labour laws which at first glance, looks like another win for the owners but the union countered by decertifying (meaning it stopped acting as a union that would negotiate for the players as a whole in collective bargaining agreements and instead reform as a players association that could offer legal advice to players as individuals).
The real wind of change was approaching with the radical actions of the players. 1990 brought antitrust lawsuits from eight NFL players including NY Jets running back Freeman McNeil who was having his legal fees paid for by the players association. The league tried to fight back, claiming the association was still a union in all but name but their main tactic was to offer individual players money for their licensing rights which is how the NFLPA and the union before it had raised its money to finance its legal battles with the owners. This was nothing more than bribery by the owners especially as the league’s licensing arm NFL Properties could never hope to turn the investment into profit. If a player had his licensing rights held by NFL Properties, he could have no part of the players association or any of their legal actions.
However, the legal battles launched by players and association were starting to gain victories. First was a back payment of $19m won in 1990 but then came the biggie in 1991 when Judge Doty ruled the unions change in status meant the owners were no longer exempt from antitrust laws. In a nutshell, this meant a court hearing in which the owners would have to prove Plan B was fair and just. They never really stood a chance.
After five years of battling, the players finally got their real day in court and the McNeil case was heard. The ruling was that Plan B violated antitrust laws because it was more restrictive than it had to be to achieve competitive balance. Plan B was dead and more was to quickly follow.
Philadelphia Eagles tight end Keith Jackson, who had been protected under Plan B but was a free agent, launched his case against the league. Several other players, including Cleveland Browns wide receiver Webster Slaughter soon joined Jackson in his case and Judge Doty ruled in their favour, granting them unrestricted free agent status. Jackson soon signed with the Miami Dolphins whilst Slaughter took his talents to the Browns divisional rival Houston Oilers.
With no chance of Plan B being restored – an appeal process was going to take time and would have likely failed – the league and players association began talks. The owners wanted labour peace and the players wanted the system set up for their movement as well as sorting out how much of the financial pie was going to get served to them.
League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Gene Upshaw from the players association met numerous times to try and find some common ground. Eventually, compromise from both sides meant a system like we know today was finally reached. The players would have free agency but the league would have a salary cap. The players would accept a cap as long as it was a fair percentage of league revenues. Before the current system, the players were getting well under 50% of league revenues in wages. Now they would get over 60%. The draft was kept for the sake of competitive balance but reduced in the number of rounds (from twelve to seven) and there would be limited free agency for players in their first four years in order to recognise the investment by the teams in their development. There would also be a system for giving teams a better chance of hanging onto its very best players which would become the franchise tag.
In 1993, the association became a union again and we have had peace ever since. Things nearly came to a head in 2006 when a new CBA only got done after a last minute extension to the deadline and some more ground given by the owners but the lessons above are well worth knowing and understanding because since the new agreement was reached, the owners have exercised an opt out clause. This means a new deal must be reached before free agency starts in 2010 or the league enters a cap-less year and the players will unlikely want a return to a salary cap ever again. A lockout in 2011 could follow and the union will likely counter by decertifying again. It’s a set of events that if they happen, will be like a trip back in time to the 80’s and early 90’s. If you don’t remember the 80’s (lucky you!) or didn’t start following football until later, look for some of the events of the past to repeat themselves in the future unless a new deal happens. Of course, off the field politics don’t appeal to every sports fan and if that’s the case then go watch The A-Team on Bravo instead you crazy fool!
Learn More about past NFL greats in our History Archive
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