NFL CBA offer includes harsher holdout penalties for players

One issue that certainly will catch NFL players’ attention in this collective bargaining agreement offer from the league: stricter rules regarding training camp holdouts. Under this proposal, players under contract would incur severe punishments if they skip camp days.

A player would lose an accrued season toward free agency if he does not report to camp on time, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reports. Under the 2011 CBA, players could not lose an accrued season unless they failed to report within 30 days of the regular-season opener.

Additionally, teams are no longer permitted to eliminate fines for players after they return to camp. This is a somewhat common practice for teams that reach an extension agreement with a holdout. The Rams did so with Aaron Donald in 2017 when he reported after Week 1 without a new deal. However, all fines are now mandatory, and they will cost “substantially” more than $40K per day, Florio adds.

This figures to be a major issue for players, but it also might present some class warfare. The bulk of the NFL’s workforce (and future members of it) will not be in position to wage a training camp holdout. The other sweeteners, such as significant minimum-salary increases, may induce much of the lower-profile contingent of players to look past this team-friendly provision and approve the proposal.

However, holdouts ensue frequently and represent a key leverage avenue for dissatisfied players. Although some have not been deterred by the accrued-season component — as Donald and Ezekiel Elliott, to name two players, brushed this aside during their lengthy camp absences — this will limit other players’ options.