Steelers Stars Urged to Former New Saudi Arabia League

"This is where I come back to my idea of having Mahomes, Watt, Parsons, Allen, Heyward, Jackson, and a bunch of other stars to visit Saudi Arabia," he writes. "The message it would send to owners would be quite clear."

It's all about leverage, according to Schaub. With the owners controlling the majority share of the billion-dollar NFL, the former quarterback believes the NFLPA must take extreme and unprecedented measures to gain leverage and assert more control over the NFL moving forward.

"To get leverage for our side, we need to have a plan to walk away from what the owners offer us if it’s not in good faith," he wrote. "We must have an alternate way to make the money we deserve... We have to play football. Whether it’s for a league that WE organize or one that is sponsored by another group or company, we have to play."

Schaub also suggests that it's not just the NFL players who are looking into these large-scale changes. He points to NBA superstar LeBron James and the state of basketball as an example. The NBA landscape has drastically changed in the LeBron era, with players making massive amounts of money and exercising significant control in their contractual negotiations and roster moves. It's a lesson that the NFLPA can take from James and the NBA.

"If you have been paying attention to what LeBron James is saying about the NBA, he has the very same idea about forming an alternative league that is controlled by the players," Schaub stated. "I know the NFLPA has sometimes toyed with this idea, but never thought to carry it through. I don’t understand why the union hasn’t done it."

Schaub is calling for some radical shifts in thinking and operating for the NFL and NFLPA. Whether or not the players, like Watt or Heyward, feel similarly is a huge question. What's clear is that the players are looking for change after ousting their former executive director earlier this summer. In the search for a permanent replacement, perhaps Schaub has separated himself as a free-thinking, change-seeking candidate. Or maybe his suggestions will be seen as going too far off the rails for the NFLPA to latch on to.