A chronology of NFL labor issues since the NFLPA was recognized by the league in 1968:
1968
In 1968 the National Football League Players Association was first recognized in writing by National Football League team owners. This occurred after the player members of the NFLPA voted to go on strike, intending to pressure owners to increase minimum salaries, pensions and other benefits for all players. In response, NFL team owners locked out the players who were on strike. After 11 days of work stoppage, the first CBA was reached between the NFL and the NFLPA. The agreement set a minimum salary of $9,000 per year for rookie players and $10,000 per year for veteran players. It also set aside $1.5 million of league revenue to be contributed to player pensions
1970
After the NFL-AFL merger, the NFLPA is certified by the National Labor Relations Board, and John Mackey becomes first president of the union.
1971
Ed Garvey is hired as NFLPA executive director. Union files antitrust case against league seeking to eliminate “Rozelle Rule” under which commissioner Pete Rozelle could award equal compensation to a team losing a free agent.
1974
In 1974, the veteran NFL players went on strike for five weeks, declaring “No Freedom, No Football,” but they received no concessions before reporting to training camp after a two-week “cooling off” period. The strike never resumed, and the NFLPA player representatives voted instead to pursue a previously filed lawsuit, Mackey v. NFL, which challenged the Rozelle Rule restrictions on free agency as a violation of the federal antitrust laws. The Rozelle Rule was a compensation clause that outlined that a team losing a free agent would get equal value in return. Player confidence in the NFLPA was weakened by the strike’s ineffectiveness. By 1975, fewer than half of players in the NFL were paying their union dues.
1977
After players won the Mackey case in court, the NFLPA and the owners settled on a new CBA that implemented a new first refusal and compensation system to replace the Rozelle Rule. The new system still placed restrictions on players’ free agency. The court decision outlined that compensation for draft picks was to be awarded on the basis of the salaries received by departing free agents. The agreement reached in 1977 significantly improved some medical and pension benefits for players and gained neutral arbitration of all player/club disputes
1980
Gene Upshaw becomes union president.
1982
A 57-day-long strike beginning after two games are played forces cancellation of seven weeks of the season and leads to a 16-team playoff tournament. The new CBA basically returns lost salary to the players for the games missed and upgrades benefits and health coverage.
1983
Upshaw takes over as NFLPA executive director.
1987
After playing the first two games of the season in 1987, players went on strike for free agency. In response to the strike, team owners brought in replacement players and continued the regular season after one week. Several well-known players, including Joe Montana, Lawrence Taylor and Tony Dorsett crossed the picket lines to rejoin their teams alongside these new replacements. On October 15, players voted to end the strike, to instead pursue a legal challenge to the free agency restrictions in court.
1988
In January, Judge David Doty agrees with the league that the contract should remain in effect, and urges both sides to continue bargaining on the free agency issue. In July, Doty refuses to turn loose 300 NFL players from their teams by granting them free agency, saying it could destroy competitive balance and cause some teams to fold. Instead, Doty urges that the sides get out of the courts and go back to the bargaining table while preparing for an antitrust trial that he says he thinks the players would win.
1989
A limited free agency system called Plan B begins, allowing teams to protect 37 players and giving them the right to match offers for free agents or receive compensation. Meanwhile, the NFLPA decertifies as a union as the players opt to take their cases to court. Rozelle resigns as commissioner and is replaced by Paul Tagliabue.
1990
Doty rules players are free to pursue individual antitrust cases against the NFL. Jets running back Freeman McNeil and seven other players who were restricted under Plan B file an antitrust lawsuit against the league.
1991
In May, Doty tosses out the NFL’s labor exemption, upholds the NFLPA’s decertification and rules to allow individual players to pursue free agency. Four months later, Doty dismisses a players’ association lawsuit claiming collusion among NFL owners.
1992
In September, a Minneapolis jury strikes down Plan B and awards $1.63 million in damages to four of the eight plaintiffs. Four days later, 10 players file suit to become unrestricted free agents. Ten days after that, Doty declares Philadelphia’s Keith Jackson, Detroit’s D.J. Dozier, Cleveland’s Webster Slaughter and New England’s Garin Veris as unrestricted free agents for five days.
1993
A pivotal year. After Reggie White of the Eagles files a class-action lawsuit, new negotiations begin and the CBA that results from those talks includes more open free agency and a salary cap.
1996
CBA is extended until 1998.
1998
CBA is extended for two more years.
2000
Another two-year extension is worked out by Upshaw and Tagliabue.
2002
A four-year extension to the CBA is completed.
2006
In his final major act as commissioner, Tagliabue negotiates another CBA extension. Only Buffalo and Cincinnati vote against it. Both sides can opt out of it in 2008. Roger Goodell is elected commissioner after Tagliabue retires.
2008
NFL opts out of the agreement, saying its costs are too high and it needs givebacks from the players. 2010 season will have no salary cap. Upshaw dies in August.
2009
After six months without an executive director, the players elect Washington attorney DeMaurice Smith.
2011
Union files collusion claim against owners regarding lack of movement of restricted free agents. Both sides meet for short negotiations one day before Super Bowl in Dallas. NFL files charge against union with NLRB for not bargaining in good faith because of its plans to decertify. Federal mediator George Cohen begins a week of mediation sessions on Feb. 18, sessions that continue intermittently up until the CBA’s expiration. Doty rules that the NFL’s contracts with the TV networks to collect $4 billion even if no games are played in 2011 is “lockout insurance.”
2020
NFL owners voted to approve the 2020–2030 CBA on Feb, 20, 2020. The Board of Representatives for the NFL Players Association approved a vote of the proposed CBA from the NFL owners on Feb. 26 that went to a vote of the members of the Players Association. The new CBA was agreed to by the NFLPA on March 15, 2020. In the 2020 agreement, a 17th regular season game for teams will be added to the NFL schedule during either the 2021, 2022, or 2023 NFL season. Playoff-eligible teams will increase from 12 teams to 14 teams, with six Wild Card playoff games being played instead of four and only two teams receiving first-round playoff byes instead of four. The preseason will be shortened from four games to three in seasons with 17 regular-season games.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
