The power dynamic of the NFL and the NFLPA
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2017/08/17/demaurice-smith-nfl-lockout-strike-2021-virtual-certainty/578518001/
The head of the National Football League Players Association, DeMaurice Smith, announced recently that a player initiated work-stoppage is a “virtual certainty” when their acting collective bargaining agreement with the NFL expires in 2021. USA Today reports that the union’s desire to strike stems from, what they believe as, an unequal revenue share between the league’s owners and its players, “the revenue split between the players and owners will again be a major issue.” The previous collective bargaining agreement was agreed upon in 2011 and allocates 47.75% of all revenue to the players.
The relationship between the National Football League and its players union is a complex and nuanced power dynamic. Upon initial glance, one might think that the relationship should be framed as a variant or descendant of the 2-node path bargaining dynamic. The 2-node path bargaining situation occurs when two people, A and B, are given a fixed amount of time to decide how to split a sum of money. In this scenario, the two people, A and B, would be the NFL and the NFLPA respectively. If the power dynamics were equal, they each would each theoretically get ½ of the sum. However, after studying the history of the relationship between the National Football League and its players, we can conclude that a more accurate representation of the power dynamic is a 3-node path bargaining situation.
In 1987, the players of the NFL had a work stoppage due to, what they believed as, an unfair CBA. The strike was mainly unsuccessful, however, as the NFL simply replaced the players group of “replacement players” to work instead of them. As a result, the original NFL players eventually succumbed and re-joined the league. This reveals the true 3-node path bargaining situation of the National Football League. The 3-nodes are: the National Football League, the NFLPA, and a theoretical group of replacement players. The NFL is in the middle of this path, which means that they have the most amount of power due to the power principles of exclusion and dependence. This explains why the NFLPA does not have a 50/50 revenue split with the owners. It should be noted, however, that the NFLPA still has more power than the replacement players because the NFL would still prefer to do a deal with them.