NFL makes big change in wake of collusion investigation

The NFL will no longer share non-player salary data with teams, according to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio.

In past years, the league shared the high, low, median and average salary for “every job in every NFL team,” per Florio. The decision to end that practice comes on the heels of the collusion arbitration ruling regarding guaranteed money in player contracts and appears to be an effort by the league to avoid future collusion accusations by non-players.

Indeed, as Florio reports, “the official position is that the information is no longer being provided for legal reasons.” Non-player employees could argue that it limits their ability to push for higher salaries at their current, or other teams, contrary to existing antitrust law.

Florio claims that the practice is “per se coordination/collusion,” arguing that the NFL is implicitly encouraging teams to adhere to leaguewide standards instead of offering higher salaries to attract talent in a competitive labor market. Eliminating the information-sharing can protect the league from future legal action by non-player employees, though the same policy in past years may still leave them exposed.

Non-player salaries are not officially released by teams, and even finding reliable data on more prominent staff like general managers, head coaches, and coordinators can be difficult.