The NFL Players Association ratified the new collective bargaining agreement over the weekend, which means the trains can keep running on time in the world of professional football.
A new league year was scheduled to begin on Wednesday, with teams authorized to negotiate with and sign free agents. There was debate as to whether the league would postpone free agency due to the coronavirus, but the league office decided to continue with business as usual -- or, as usual as possible.
As nice as it as a consumer to have signings and franchise tags to digest -- did you see Ryan Tannehill got $91 million a year to the day after the Dolphins cut him loose? -- the teams are concerned the league has cast them in a bad light.
From Peter King's Football Morning in Americaarticle:
“Tone deaf is right!” one of the GMs told me by phone, breathing fire. “The world has stopped. We’re in a national emergency as a country and we do this? It’s awful. We’re telling the rest of the world we don’t care. Can you imagine the reaction to some player signing a $60-million contract this week and that being in the headlines while thousands and thousands of people are losing their jobs because of this virus! It’s ridiculous.”
“It’s arrogant,” the other GM said. “It looks gross. We need to chill out for a while. The optics of it are going to be awful.”
Here's Adam Schefter:
And here's Mike Florio:
COVID-19 has put everything else -- literally everything else -- in the sports world on hold, but NFL free agency will continue as scheduled, Wednesday at 4 p.m. ET.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.