NFLPA's DeMaurice Smith explains merits of CBA but understands reservations over 17-game schedule

INDIANAPOLIS — DeMaurice Smith understands there is disagreement among many NFL players about the prospects of a 17-game regular season, but the NFLPA’s executive director believes there are plenty of merits to the proposed collective bargaining agreement that will soon be voted on by the union’s members.

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, the team’s player representative, have publicly proclaimed that they will vote against the deal.

“Democracy is sometimes kind of messy, and I know that sometimes it plays out that way,” Smith told a group of reporters at the NFL Combine Thursday. “Optimism is based on the fact that I believe in the democratic process.”

Smith wouldn’t predict whether the deal would pass, but he said players on the lower end of the salary spectrum would see an immediate benefit if the proposed 10-year agreement is adopted.

“For those 60 percent [of players who make close to the league minimum salary], those players end up with a $100,000 raise that goes into effect [if the deal passes],” he said. “Remember, this is a deal that raises our percentage [of NFL revenues] from 47 percent over the life of the [current] deal to a 48-percent share of revenue from year to year [in the proposed CBA]. From a monetary sense, that is somewhere between a $3 and $5 billion increase over the life of the deal.”

Smith understands the reluctance of going to a 17-game season, even if that means the league’s preseason would be reduced from four games to three.

“No player would want to play an extra game, and that’s why it’s been such a long and tortured process talking about it,” he said.

But Smith said one of the NFL’s requirements for extending the current deal before it concluded following the 2020 season was adding one regular-season game.

“The league was conditioning an early deal on the 17th game and that was a part of the package,” he said. “That was a critical term for the players, and for the players who don’t want to do 17 games for any reason, those players will vote their conscience.”

Voting is expected to take place within a week or so. A simple majority of those union members who vote is required for passage.

The league year is set to begin on March 18, when the free-agency signing period opens.

By Bob Glauber

Special to NewsdayBobGlauber

Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”