Houston Texans receiver Kenny Stills is known for his strong, unwavering stances on issues off the field.
The 27-year-old took to Twitter on Thursday to record a video asking fellow players to vote no on the NFL’s proposed collective bargaining agreement that would go into effect on March 18, 2020, at 3:00 p.m. Central Time.
“Players, we got to vote no on this deal. I know that younger players and guys that haven’t signed big deals are a little nervous about a work stoppage, but we’ve got a fund put together just in case we were to have a work stoppage,” Stills said. “We can work on other ways of getting loans or getting money set aside so that we can negotiate a deal that is player friendly.”
The former New Orleans Saints 2013 fifth-round pick would not get into specifics, but said, “There’s so many things that we want and continue to ask for. They should be non-negotiables.”
From Stills’ perspective, one of the reasons why the NFL seems to always win in negotiations is because the players don’t have the leverage to miss games, such as they were able to do in the 1982 and 1987 strikes.
Said Stills: “When we have power and we have leverage by saying that we won’t play for a season or say that we have enough money to sit out for a full season, we can bring the owners to the table and negotiate a deal that’s friendly for us. It’s going to take some work. It’s not going to be easy.”
The former New Orleans Saint and Miami Dolphin also put his own cash on the line saying he would partner with active players and veterans to create a pool to help players adversely affected by a work stoppage. Ultimately, even amid the hardship, Stills is confident the owners would get the message.
“We run the show,” said Stills. “We run this league. You’ve seen all these other leagues that have tried to come up that have failed. There is no league without the players. And, so, we’ve got to stand up for ourselves and we’ve got to exert some power and we’ve got to go out and get the things that we want and need in this opportunity.”
Another element for success, according to Stills, is for the NFLPA to find someone “outside the NFL’s web” to help negotiate a more favorable deal.
