The Richard Sherman Podcast - Truth about NFL contracts, benefits, and CBA negotiations w/ NFLPA President JT Tretter + Wild Card round preview

NFL Wild Card weekend is here! Richard and Mitchell give their predictions for all 6 matchups, including the battle between two of Richard's former teams as the Seahawks travel to San Francisco to play the 49ers. Will the Niners cruise or can Pete & Geno pull off the huge upset? After, Richard interviews JC Tretter, the president of the NFL Players Association. The two discuss some of the hard-hitting issues in the NFL's CBA like fully guaranteed contracts, healthcare benefits, plus playoff and Super Bowl bonuses. What is the NFLPA and how do they negotiate with the NFL? How does this impact your favorite NFL players and teams? And how can the Damar Hamlin situation change the NFL's future? #volume #herd

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's the Richard Sherman Podcast presented by FanDuel. It's NFL
playoff time, and there's no better place to get in
on the action than FanDuel. The app is safe, secure,
and easy to use. FanDuel has exclusive offers, boost and
more all month long. When you win, you'll get paid
fast jump into the action at any time near the
game with live betting, and FanDuel is now live in Ohio.

(00:23):
So use promo code RS and download the FanDuel app
today to start making every moment more. Wh do you
want nothing? Selectates first on line really any way? Dr
only TANDL. The first Posi requier proans issue is now
with proxpier fourteen days after receive restrictions applies. He turns
at sports Books, Got fandel dot Com, Gami problem Nabler
the volume. Welcome back to the Richard Sherman Podcast. It's

(00:49):
playoff seeding. We know the teams that are in, we
don't know the teams that are gonna win. Mitchell, who
you got? Well, rich let's start in the a FC
do the first off. This has got to be my
favorite time. I'm a year like I love March madness
and everything, but like there's nothing better than NFL playoff season.
It's something that everyone get hyped for. And we got
some big, big matchups. We're gonna start in the FC. Rich,

(01:12):
I want to just take it straight down the line.
Buffalo Bills at home against the Dolphins, who may or
may not be without to a tongue of voloa. Your
thoughts on that game. Mitchell without tongue in his health
match with the Buffalo Bill should walk out of that
game very comfortably, very admirably. And good job for the

(01:34):
Dolphins for making the playoffs. You did a great thing.
They were They were people who had Super Bowl aspirations
that that really went into the gutter once to A
got hurt, but still a good season for them. But
Buffalo Bills, Rich, I don't know how Buffalo doesn't just
trounce you know, this Miami Dolphin team without too uh
Skyler Thompson obviously third you know, third string quarterbacks. There's

(01:58):
not much that they can contry role there with the
health of Toa. But I mean, this game should be
over by halftime. Vegas is calling it a ten and
a half point spread in Bill's favor. I don't know
where your thoughts are on that, but I would certainly
think that they win by two plus scores. Bigger picture
here is the Buffalo Bills team. Obviously we talked about

(02:19):
on the last podcast, very emotional week for them last week,
the mar Hanlon's back home. You know, it seems to
me that this could be the perfect story book, kind
of fairytale movie type season for the Buffalo Bills. You know,
beyond the Dolphins. You know, does this team what stops

(02:41):
the Buffalo Bills? Um, Mitchell, it is the perfect story
book ending, It's a perfect story book everything. There's a
lot of good energy, there's a lot of teams rooting
for the Buffalo, a lot of people rooting for the
Buffalo Bill excuse me because of that story, a lot
of positive vibes. But Mitchell, Josh Allen's red zone interceptions

(03:02):
could derail all of that, all the good stories, all
the all the good feelings, and they will be at
home if he continues to do that, because in the
playoffs it does not work that way. That's why these
games have been so close down the stretch. Outside of
this last game, they've been really close because he's taking
a risk down the stretch. He's taking risk in the
red zone. Uh, Devin mccordy was the most recent interception,

(03:24):
but he's had him and and I think probably eight
of the ball games where he's still the red zone interception,
and he can't have that in the playoffs. If you
make those kind of mistakes in the playoffs, they are detrimental.
The NFL playoffs are here. If your team's in, it's
gonna be fun. But what if you could actually be
at the game'll be fun For last minute amazing deals

(03:44):
on tickets to your favorite NFL team. Checkout game Time,
the fastest growing app in the US. If your team
is out of it, no sweat. They have tickets to
n C double A, NHL, NBA games, even concerts and
comedy shows too. So if you're in San francist go
you want to see the Niners. Download the game Time app,
creating an account and redeem the code Sherman or twenty

(04:06):
dollars off your first purchase. Terms apply again creating an
account entered the code Sherman. That's s h E R
M A N for twenty dollars off. No matter where
you live, get out and have some fun this week.
Download the game Time at last minute tickets lowest price guarantee. Well,
what's happened with Josh Allen mean is nineteen gives giveaways

(04:28):
this season. That's most in the NFL. Five red zone interceptions.
The next tie in the NFL is three. I mean,
he didn't have these problem problems last year with dayble
Is it? Is it the coordinator changes Ken Dorsey have
something to do with it? You think? I think he does,
but not in a way that you think. I don't
think it's the play calling that's putting him in these
compromising situations. I think he he feels he has to
do more to overcome the play calling, and so he's

(04:52):
taking more risk. He's not trusting his progression. He's not
trusting the call like he was with day Ball. He'd
he'd hit his back step so might be open every
now and then he would get creative out of the
pocket and deliver the ball. But now he's relying on
his ability to create, his ability to to extend the
play and to do something special. And I'm and I'm

(05:14):
not sure, but seeing Patrick Mahomes be able to do,
you know, flip the ball here over his head, around
his back, you know it may be having up uh
an effect. On him and this is just maybe human nature,
uh he said him saying he's doing all this spectacular stuff.
I can do it too. Let me show you and
what he's showing us this year is not spectacular. Mention,

(05:37):
you made a good point. There's only one Steph Curry,
There's only one Patty Mahomes that maybe he's got to
just simplify things and stay true to himself. Rich that
the next big game, And this is a big game.
I know last week's game, you know it was somewhat
meaningless with the Ravens being on their third string quarterback themselves.
But the Bangals are at home against the Ravens six

(05:57):
and a half point favorites. We're still unsure about Lamar
Jackson and that is the true story that we're gonna
be following this week. If Lamar plays, and let's just
assume that real quick, what does this game look like?
First off, he'd be rusty if he played, so I
mean I would I would have the bank was winning
this game by by double digits. It's a division game,

(06:19):
so there will be you know, familiarity there they just played. Um,
it's gonna be a bit of a dog fight. But offensively,
it's gonna be tough for the Ravens if they can't
get that run game going the way they need to.
And Lamar, even if he does play, he's not gonna
be hitting on all cylinders. Like like Joe Burrow and
Josh Allen and Patty Mahomes. They're in the rhythm right now,
Tom Brady, everybody's in rhythm. They played consecutive games. This

(06:42):
is when you start getting hot. You know, everybody's a
little sore, slower, The game slowed down for everybody. He
It's not gonna be slow for Lamar Jackson right now
because he has not played in what six weeks, six games,
seven games, and so that's gonna be the problem even
if he does play. And like I said that when
he first got hurt, I wouldn't play at this point.
It doesn't look like I'm gonna be a Baltimore raven

(07:03):
next year. What do I owe this team? I do
not owe them. They they didn't feel like they owed
me anything. And we talked about this. When when a
team does what's best for them, when the team does
works in their best interests, whether it's sitting a guy
I are and a guy cutting a guy with years
left on his contract. Dan's always say, hey, it was
the best interesting team. I understand that it's a business. Well,

(07:26):
guess what, Lamar Jackson is a business. And the best
business thing for Lamar Jackson to do is stays behind
that home and let let the Baltimore Ravens be the
Baltimore Ravens without Lamar Jackson, because they felt like they
didn't want to give him the security that he asked for.
And he may not be there next year. And if
you're doing what's best for you, you don't want to

(07:46):
go into this offseason injured, are banged up on what
question marks about your health? You stay home. Lamar Jackson,
the player, the agent, Lamar Jackson has done a fantastic
job and representing himself. And you know this better than anyone.
And I know you took a lot of heat um
when you chose to represent yourself, but Lamar and Lamar
did the same. But he what he's done is he

(08:07):
showed what reality looks like without Lamar Jackson behind center.
And that just is gonna drive his market value up
and up and up. Now they're left to either take
the franchise tag on Lamar Jackson or negotiate with Lamar Jackson,
the agent, and you know rich you called it. You
called it from the onset. If you were him, you'd

(08:28):
sit your ass down and you let reality set him
for the Baltimore Ravens and added ass on the other
side of the ball, Cincinnati Bengals. Joe Burrow to me,
is that guy. You know, I love him or hate him,
He is that guy. I mean, he's got that confidence, cockiness.
He's got a little a Rod in him. He's got
a little Patty Mahomes in him. They asked him what

(08:50):
his championship window was for this team. He says, my
entire career and I I think he's spot on, man.
He's he's a once in a decade type player, and
I think he's gonna eventually get the Cincinnati Bengals team
that championship. He has something and not to not to
downplay his talent, because it's tremendous talent, but he has
something else. Mitchell. It's it's not you know when when

(09:12):
you look at pat my Owns player, you're like, oh,
pat my Owns he can do everything every ar mang Well,
he's this it's just ridiculously talented. I mean, it's like,
oh my godness, like watching Steph Curry play, then you
then you watch Joe Burrow play, and you're like, he's
just a dang winner, Like he just is a winner.
He just is not going to lose. He's accurate, he's poised,
he's clutch. He rallies his teammates. You can see they

(09:34):
play play for him. He doesn't make excuses. You know,
when his old line earlier in the season was terrible,
they were decimated, and that right now they're banged up
there without the right tackle, the right guard just got
banged up. And he does not making excuses. Mitchell. He's
playing for the Cincinnati Bengals. Mitchell. You don't even You
barely associate NFL with Cincinnati Bengals sometimes, Mitchell, because they're
never in the playoffs, they're never in the super Bowl.

(09:55):
But with him, he takes a team that barely was
gonna make the playoffs to the super Bowl, and he
gives a city that has rarely ever had Super Bowl
aspirations credibility that, hey, any given year, with this guy
in the center, we can make it. But he creates
a problem, Mitchell. He creates a problem that Mike Brown
rarely has mit Mike Brown, the owner of the Cincinnati Bankers,

(10:15):
never has this problem, Mitell, He never has it. He's
going to have to fully guarantee Joe burrows entire deal. Mitchell.
We're talking about Lamar Jackson. It's an argument. He's a
running quarterback. You hear all this fuss about, well, running
quarterbacks get hurt, they do this, they do this. Joe
Burrow is not a running quarterback. Got hurt in his
first year, torn a c L. That's not good. Crazy there,

(10:36):
But you know what they're gonna have to do, Mitchell.
They're not gonna have the same argument for Joe Burrow.
They're gonna have to guarantee everything. And what Mike Brown
does not do, Mitchell, he does not guarantee contracts past
one year. He has not for anybody. He'll rather let
some mighty walk. He'd rather build a team than a
guarantee fully guarantee a contract. He might. You might see
Jamaar Chase get traded from the Cincinnati bank Mitchell, because

(11:01):
they will not pay him the money, similar to the A. J.
Brown situation. No matter what he does, it's just not
how they do things. So it's gonna be really interesting
this off season, the next off season, what they do
with Joe Burrow and mar Chase because he does not
do that. You got somebody like that in the house,
You're a fool to let him go. So maybe this,
maybe this change is Mike Brown's course of action. He's

(11:22):
not Andy Dalton here, Rich I can understand that sentiment
with Andy Dalton. Understander, hear you, Mitchell. But but they
just got an indoor practice facility, Mitchell. This was it
just started getting built last year. This is one where
it started, Mitchell. Now we're in two most this is
the NFL team college, not not not a one, double

(11:44):
A or junior college. Mitchell. This is a National Football
League team and they just got to indoor facility. It's
not it's not California, it is Ohio. It's cold. Fair enough.
Next big game this weekend. Another hot team down the stretch,
if you want to call in that. They have City
South is been uh much like the NFC South. The
Jacksonville Jaguars got it done though, and they deserve to

(12:05):
be in this playoff race. They've been they've been winning
down the stretch. They've talked things into fruition and now
they've played the l A Chargers, who have underwhelmed at
the beginning of this season and now have been out
of late UM one and a half point spread. Vi
Vegas figures the Chargers just by a point and a half.
Your thoughts on this game. I was so high when

(12:27):
the Chargers when this season started, Mitchell, I thought super
Bowl Chargers l A Charging, Hey, wee come, so many
playmakers both sides of the ball. They just got Mac.
They just and then Mitchell, they started to play and
they just looked blah blah, and it's like the talent
is still there. Derwin James still a heck of a player.

(12:49):
J C. Jackson got hurt, obviously, Khalil Mack has okay season.
Joey Bosa just gets back and starting to get come
into form. Offensively. They were banged up a lot of year.
All their receivers were banged up. And that's the question
mark Mitchell, Mike Williams or back injury. Mitchell, he could
barely walk after the last game. Should they have pulled

(13:10):
up the starters early in the game, Yes, they should
have mentelled. They already seated where they're gonna be like,
should they have pulled him yes, they didn't. Now they
gotta play the Jacksonville Jaguars, and maybe without their number two,
I mean number one, eight one beat receiver, not even two.
Mike Williams is a really good receiver. Him and Keenan
Allen create a difficult matchup for anybody. But without him,

(13:32):
they may go home, Mitchell, they may go home. With
the way Jacksonville's defensive been playing as of late, they've
been playing really well. Trevor Lawrence hasn't been playing superstar ball,
but he's been playing well enough for them to win.
In Doug Peterson is a winner, Mitchell, Doug Peterson, the
coach is a winner. If there was a game I
think the Jaguars could win, I think it'd be against

(13:53):
this Chargers team. And like you said, I was hiding
the Chargers to coming into this year, and it's justin
Herbert's been been solid, you know, seven and two since
November one, fifteen touchdowns and two interceptions, sixty completion percentage,
hundred five passer rating. But you know, down the stretch,
it was like they were just kind of grinding out

(14:14):
these games. It was nothing. It was nothing pretty. And
let's be honest, they're beaten the Indianapolis Cults, you know,
and then they lose the last game of the season.
It's it's not like they're overwhelming their opponents and now
it's tw or die. I mean that they've been they've
been tested with injuries all year long. But this Jaguar
team has been feisty. They've been playing do or die

(14:35):
playoff football for the last five weeks. They're already in
that mindset. So for me, I'm taking the team that's
already in that mindset that they can't lose as opposed
to been the team that's just kind of been squeaking
behind the Chargers. I'm with you, Rich, I like the Jags.
Football fans call your own plays during the NFL playoffs
with FanDuel, America's number one sports book, because when you

(14:57):
bet NFL Same gay parlays from now through January sixteenth,
all customers can get up to one hundred dollars in
free bets win or lose. All you have to do
is place a total of twenty dollars or more on
an NFL same Game parlay or same game parlay plus
during the wild Card round. The more you bet, the
more you'll get back in free bets. NFL Same Game
parlays are the perfect way to combine your bets for

(15:18):
a chance at a larger pay day. This weekend, we're
going with the San Francisco forty Niners to cover in
the Same Game parlay with Christian McCaffrey. As in any
time touchdown score, build your own or choose from one
of that popular same game parlay's pre built for you
and Fan Duels top rated sports book gap Fan Duels
also now live in Ohio, so make sure you get

(15:39):
in on the action. Also with great offers just for
you now and throughout January. New to Fanduels sports Book.
You can also get up to one hundred dollars in
free bets win or lose when signing up with Promo
Code RS. That's Promo Code RS State's first time really anyway,
Your only Tendell FIR spies expire fourteen days after re
set prescription supplies. See terms of sportsookvandul dot com. Let's

(16:02):
move over to the NFC. We gotta talk about your
two teams, forty Niners hosting your Seattle Seahawks. It's ten
point line, Rich, all right, Mitchell's gonna It's gonna be
first time in playoff history. They're gonna have to figure
that out. I don't know what they're gonna do with
coin flip or something that's gonna be so I'm not
going with any score right right right, right right. So

(16:25):
you now is a non former player, uh non seahawk
and forty nine or a lung you as just a
football analysts now breaking down these two teams. Put yourself
in my shoes, Rich, What would you say if you
were me? Mitchell Mentell? One? First off, my heart break
my team, it wasn't in. It would be two a

(16:45):
mints for me to be here. Um, you're a better
man than meet Mitchell. You're not on I R. You're
standing tin toes down and you're showing up. Mitchell. Your
Detroy line showed up and that they have one another
game here there to be here they could have, but
you know, proud of where they are. They're gonna be
a minute next year. Do you know? Um? Do you
know Smith? Pro Bowl player at tries record holder in

(17:08):
a number of categories the first year he started, uh
d K and Tyler. Tyler has had a really good
season other thousand yard season. Um, those young tackles have
stood up really well. But Mitchell, Nicholas don Bosa future
Defensive Player of the Year, it's gonna be tough to

(17:31):
beat him, Mitchell, it's gonna be tough to deal with them.
They're gonna they're coming off a ten game winning streak.
But the game in Seattle was closer than a lot
of people think. Um, you know, there was a ten
point swing right before the first end of the first half.
I was there. It was a TNF game where an
interception by Quandari Dix could have happened, was right in
his hands, threw it right to him. That could have

(17:51):
changed the complexity of that game immensely. It could have
changed really fast. And not say it will be that
kind of game, but that game was closer than people think.
And I think this is gonna be closer than people think.
I don't think it's gonna be a ten point game.
I think it's gonna be closer than people think. I
think with Christian McCaffrey and this offensive line healthy now
defensive line healthy for San Francisco, it's a tough task

(18:12):
expecting Seattle to walk into San Francisco and come out
with a win. But I do not think it will
be a ten point spread. Rich, I'll say this, I
think Seattle has a fighter's chance. You know, they've got
the weapons. They got Gino, but it's not discount his
Pro Bowl season. He's been a true revelation for them,
and it's broke franchise records in its first year. You

(18:33):
know who would have saw this coming? D K, Tyler
Lockett the difference difference maker here, Rich, let's be the
defense has been stingy, they've been playing, We've been playing
pretty solid. The difference maker here is gonna be the
Michigan State alum, Kenneth Walker, the third, K nine. You know,

(18:54):
let me let me get let me get a shout
out to my my fellow spartan here, Kenneth Walker the third.
You know, if he's able to tote the rock in
a hundred twenty yards, control the control the line of scrimmage,
you know, if they're able to control the time of possession,
get the play action relevant in this game. Take some
deep shots to d K and Tyler. Maybe, just maybe

(19:16):
the Seahawks are in this game late, and maybe, just
maybe Myers doesn't miss a field goal or Donk went
off the right post, and maybe, just maybe Seattle wins
this game. But control in that statement rich maybe baby,
maybe baby Mitchell Mitchell, I don't want to be a

(19:36):
maybe baby. Um. I think it's tough. I think it now.
Brock Purty Mitchell in the National Football League, Brock Party
has been a lot of things, mystery relevant, you know,
seventh round pick Mitchell, but he has yet to be
a loser in the National Football League. Mitchell. He has
not lost. If he started a game, Mitchell, he has
won it. Six and old Mitchell fifteen passer rating. I

(19:57):
think thirteen touchdowns, four interceptions, about thirteen fifty three yards like,
and he's solid, and he really loves George Kittle. He
loves giving him in ball. Mitchell. He's had seven touchdowns
since Brock Party has started. You know how you develop
a friendship Mitchell. You thaw a guy seven touchdowns who

(20:18):
hadn't who hadn't had more than seven touchdowns in the season. Mitchell.
He's beating that man. And and and he's coming into
his own uh. And then you got Brandon I you
thousand yards season. And then it's just Elijah Mitchell coming back.
Christian McCaffrey's there, debos there, everybody. You got all the fixings, Mitchell.
They got the fixings, and now Seattle. Seattle is coming

(20:40):
into a game where Kenneth Walker has had three straight
hundred yard games. They're running the ball, better, play actions, better,
Geno's still throwing dimes, seventy passer. It's gonna be tight.
But Nicholas John Bosa Mitchell, he's the difference maker. He's
the disruptor. Eric Armstead he why McGill Mitchell, this is

(21:01):
the name you have not heard Mitchell. You may not
hear not again. T Y McGill, he's going to He
played for Seattle four, a little white player. He's been
a journeyman. He's I don't know why he has never stuck,
but he's a disruptor at the d tackle spot. He's
a three tech and he just he's not the biggest nut,
but he's quick, and he is disruptive in the run

(21:22):
game and in the past game, and he's made huge
plays down the stretch. I think he's gonna make a
difference in this playoffs. And I think you're gonna hear
his name in a critical moment in a critical game,
and you're gonna say, I told you I'm excited to
hear t Y McGill's name called out this Saturday, and
I think the Niners are an absolute jugger not. I
think the only way they truly lose this game is

(21:43):
if they forget the games on Saturday and think it's
on Sunday and just flat out don't show up right
next game though. Rich the Minnesota Vikings the winners of
the NFC North, those that have won eleven one possession
games and and own a negative plus minus scoring differential
on the season against the New York Giants. Daniel Jones say,

(22:06):
Kawan Barkley h a solid defense. Rich Vikings minus three
at home. Kirk, Oh, your thoughts, Mitchell, From what I've heard,
a team, if everything's even, A team gets three points
just for being home. Team gets three points for being home. Sure,

(22:29):
so it's an even game. And you're talking about guys
who don't know any better. That's the worst. That's the
worst kind of team to deal with, Mitchell. A team
that doesn't know they're not supposed to be there. And
the Giants are not supposed to be there, but they
don't know that, and their coach doesn't know that. And
Brian day Bowl is tough. He's tough. He played in
tough division this year, and they have to play the

(22:51):
Eagles last game with backups, and so they play with backups,
and they play with backups, and they gave them the
Eagles everything they can handle with backups. Daniel Jones didn't play.
Be careful, Minnesota, be careful because that that defense has
been leaky all season. They're one of the worst in
terms of yards per game. They stand up when they
have to. Patrick Peterson has had a resurgence and been

(23:12):
really good at cornerback spot five interceptions this season. He's
been really good. They got playmakers that Darius Smith has
been really good off the edge. Harrison Smith is always steady, playmaker, playmaker, playmaker.
But they give up a lot of yards. And this
is one of those games that if you let a
team like the Giants stick around late in the playoff game,
where they start to believe they can see next round,

(23:34):
they can see light at the end of the tunnel,
they'll send you home. These one possession games. I know
you've you've been living by the luck of the Irish
for a really a long time and living like that.
They're they're one of the few teams to ever be
seated at this high with such a negative point differential
and the luck of the Irish maybe ending, but you
know they still have Kirko. Do you know what they

(23:55):
say when you see that light at the end of
the tunnel, Rich, it might be just that freight trains
gonna knock your ass out, you know, I think, and
I think you're onto something. I followed way too much
of the NFC North this season. Everyone knows by now
I'm a detroitter. I love the Lions Kumbaya, but this
Minnesota Vikings team, they're fraudulent. I don't see how you

(24:22):
can possibly think any different than that. I mean, when
you have a negative scoring differential on the season and
eleven one possession games, they've been living by the luck
of the Irish. Like you said, this Giants team, Brian Dable,
I think he's got to be aggressive if he coaches
like he did at the very beginning of this season
when they were just pulling things out left and right.

(24:42):
I mean, they got the weapons to do it. I mean,
Daniel Jones has been playing with a lot more confidence
of late. You know, I think that they are able
to overcome this Vikings team, and Justin Jefferson. I will
stay with one caveat Justin Jeffret Jefferson is an absolute
rock star stud. If Kirk Cousins and him can connect
and get on path like they've been doing in the past,

(25:04):
you know, ten reception game a d fifty yards the
night night. But if they're able to control Justin Jefferson,
I think the Giants have got to win on their
hands here. Now. I don't think either of these teams
UM wins this game and then gets to the next
round and deals in San Francisco forty Niners, any of
you know in goes but whatever. UM that's where they

(25:25):
invented the word called cake walks Central for San Francisco.
It's San Francisco. They're going to the NFC Championship. But
that's that's a story for next week. Now. Tampa Bay Buccaneers,
you've played down in Tampa Bay, you live down in
Tampa Bay. Rich. They they got somebody, I don't know
if you've heard of him. He's just entered the league

(25:46):
a couple of years ago. His name is Tom Brady,
and uh, I know, I know that Tom Brady is
one of those guys that hasn't had a whole lot
of success and in the postseason, So does he have
success now? Rich playing the Dallas Cowboys at home. Mitchell, Mitchell, Mitchell, Mitchell,

(26:07):
Thomas Edward Brady Jr. Junior. I didn't know that. Nobody
knows the Mitchell. Nobody knows what until you say it
has won a lot of games in the Natural Football League,
a lot of games. Mitchell. He's probably won more games
this decade in the playoffs then the Dallas Cowboys have

(26:31):
won in a very long time in his career. Mitchell,
he made rival the Dallas Cowboys as a franchise and
they're an all time franchise menteal. They've won a lot
of Super Bowls. They haven't won him recently. And Mitchell,
if they play the way they did against the Washington
Commanders when they got beat twenty six to six by

(26:51):
Sam Howe, nothing against Sam How's first start beast the
Dallas Cowboys six. Now, Mitchell, they didn't people until late
in that game. Metro. It wasn't like things got crazy
and they were like, oh, we need to give these
guys arrest. Mitchell. That wasn't what happened. This is concerning
because Dallas Cowboys needed to show confidence. They need to show,

(27:16):
you know, continuity going into the playoffs. They need to
impressive win against the division opponent, and they did not
do that. So what we're gonna need from Rain Dakota
Prescott is not turn the ball op and score some points. Now,

(27:38):
they have a weakness, a glaring weakness that that Washington exploited.
And it's that right corner, Mitchell. It's the left corner
on the defenses. Left the offense is right Mitchell. The
Carolina game, now, now, Tom and those guys didn't play
well against Atlanta to get the bets kick. But whatever
the Carolina game, he threw three touchdowns to Mike Kevins Mitchell.

(28:01):
Guess where you're throwing. Guess what you're throwing Mitchell? Right
down that right styline Rich right down that right sideline Mitchell,
And that's where he's gonna throw him this week. And
if he if they catch fire like they did that week,
they will send these boys home packing and Dallas will
have one of the toughest off seasons they've had probably
in the last decade. Because when when I tell you,
people will talk bad about them, people we'll talk crazy

(28:22):
about him, and this whole offseason. If they lose the
first round to Tom and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, after
everything they're supposed to be this season, Mitchell, it will
be tough. They have too many good players, they have
a good defense, they have good coaching. Okay, so I
gotta say the Cowboys are like that that Instagram model
wants you to take the makeup off, man. I mean

(28:45):
the time they look great, and then you catch him
without the filters on and everything, and you see him
against all the commanders of whoa who is this? I'm
with you, rich I. I could see if there was
a matchup that the Buccaneers could realistically win, it's against
the Dallas Cowboy team. That being said, I could also
see Dallas Cowboys going to the NFC Championship game. Like

(29:06):
it's just like you don't know who you're gonna get.
If that can can keep, you know, keep control of
the ball, not give the ball away like he's been
doing them late. They got all the weapons. They got
Tony Pollard, they got t. D. Lamb, they got the
tight end that everyone wants and Dalton Schultz fellow cardinal.

(29:27):
Anything is possible here. I'm trying to see where you
where your man, it's a at because you might have
taken too many today. If I heard you say Dallas
Cowboys can make the NFC Championship, Mentell, what I mean,
they gotta go through the Philadelphia Eagles, Mitchell, They like,
let's not get crazy, Menty, this is the team that
just lost to the Washington Commanders. Well, I'll say this,

(29:50):
if Tampa gets in a pinch in this game, Tom's
got to go back to what he was doing against Carolina,
want in doubt, bomb it out. Mike Evans is a
guy that can just flip the game in one play,
you know. And Chris Godwin's healthy. Now, I mean, Tampa
has got all the weapons. They don't have a run
game right now, but they got all the weapons that
they need in terms of just being one play flip,

(30:12):
you know, flip the game. So I like this matchup
for Tampa. Richard, We're gonna have an exciting postseason here.
But before we, you know, get into anything beyond this weekend,
I want to just talk about your predictions now that
the slate of playoffs has been set. Who do you
see in the Super Bowl now? Uh, San Francisco. And

(30:39):
for the first time it's changed in a really long time.
San Francisco, Cincinnati. I love it. That's how I feel
about it. Well, thank you guys for joining us this week.
I got a special guest, my guy president of the
nfl P, A j C. Treader, joining us. Next stay too,
Welcome back to the Richard Truman Podcast. We got a

(30:59):
special your guest, President of the nfl P, a J. C. Trader.
We're gonna inform you guys today. It's gonna be a
little different. Appreciate you joining me, j C. Absolutely, thanks
for having me on. I want to start. I mean,
we have so many guys like yourself that have built
up like a platform and it's great to be on
to kind of have you lend your platform to the

(31:22):
union and to that discussion, to inform, to learn, to teach.
So I very much appreciate you inviting me on. No,
I'm happy to do it, man. You know, as you know,
I'm very passionate about the Union. I've been on the
e C for nine years now. Guys need to know,
you know, and when guys talk about the p A
a lot of times, you've got one of two guys.
You've got guys that have been to a meeting and

(31:44):
and sat there and listen, and we're frustrated enough to say, hey,
I need them to hear my perspective in person. And
then they go to the meeting and then they learn more,
and then they're not frustrated anymore. Then they're doing more
to make a difference. Then you've got the guys that
have never been to a meeting, never never been to
anything NFL p A, but have the biggest opinions about it, like,
help me explain what the p A is and what

(32:04):
we do. Yeah, I think the p A, like any
union is membership is the players. And I think sometimes
a lot of people lose that. Um they think like
we have the players and then the p as this
other entity which just isn't true. And you know the
guys that get involved and kind of see just how
player driven the p A is. Like we have a

(32:25):
staff to run day to day operations because most of
us have day jobs of playing football. Um, we we
need people and they're running the day to day But
any decision made is voted on and passed by the
players themselves to agree to it. And like you said,
there there are some guys to get frustrated with the
p A. And they have a ton of wants and requests,

(32:45):
And I think the easiest way of explaining it is
um players look at the p A like their agent,
which isn't exactly an accurate representation, but I'll use that
representation or that comparison to kind of make a point.
If if you are you your chairman, and you're coming
up for a contract negotiation and you are future Hall
of Famer, all Pro Pro bowler, best corner in the league,

(33:08):
and you go to your agent and you say, I
want to be the highest paid corner in NFL history.
I want the highest APU, I most guaranteed everything. Your
agent will look at you and say, you want to
know what you've given me the tools to have that
conversation and fight for that with your team and with
other teams, because you've provided me the tools if you had.

(33:29):
You know, a practice squad guy or a special teams
guy who's been on four different teams in four years
is trying to get by and he goes to his
agents as I want to be the high spake corner
in the league. I want the highest APU, I most guaranteed.
You guys gonna be like you haven't given me the
tools man, like, you haven't put that out there where
I can. I can go to that team and have
that conversation. And I think that's really similar to the
union too, where if we were getting every player to

(33:52):
buy in and realize that the NFL p A is
just us, it's just everybody in that locker room, and
they all were willing to give Hall of Fame all
pro old bowl top, you know, effort to the p A.
What we could demand and what we could fight for
is different. But too often we have guys who, like
you said, don't come to meetings, don't get involved, don't
lend their voice and say, well, I want the best

(34:13):
deal possible and said, well, you haven't given us those
tools to do it. And you know that that's not
blaming guys, but that I think guys need to hear that,
um because the strength of any union is the willingness
for membership to stand up together united on issues. And
until we're willing to do that, it's not fair to
even have those discussions of why don't we have us Well,

(34:36):
until we execute and show that we can do it,
we can't even have that next discussion of what we
can get with it, that's one of the best ways
I've heard it put in a very long time. Guys,
if you want to make a difference, you want to
change things, you want to see differences. You've got a
problem with how something is rung, how something is done,
come to the meetings, have an opinion, be a rent.
The reps have the votes. Remember when the cb A

(34:57):
happened and guys were like, hey, I don't know what happened,
and I wasn't in a part of those The information
was sent, the meetings were had. You're rep voted, whether
it was yes or no, you're rep voted. There was
a rep that abstained, didn't vote at all, And if
you feel a way about that, then be the guy
that votes, Be the guy that that sits in the meetings,
gets to information. But it's hard when guys complaining you

(35:20):
don't want to do the work. You can't, you can't
want and need and think, hey, this is happening, this
is happened. It's us, it's our union, it's our decisions.
It's not the staff decisions. It's not the staff union.
So if you're upset that anybody be upset that the
reps that you voted for r b upset at yourself
for not going and taking initiative to be the person

(35:42):
with the vote, with the information. Until you're willing to
do that, it's really difficult to take the complaints seriously.
I want to talk about now the benefits that we
have negotiated, that we fought for, and I want to
help guys understand where they come from. Like everybody sits there,
for example, four one K guys sit there and say
the league matches are four oh one K. That's not

(36:05):
totally true, is it j No, it's it's different. So
a little a little bit of a math lesson here.
We are revenue sharing business, so what all the revenue
that gets brought in by the NFL. We get a
cut of that pot, which is a little more than
we just finished negotiating or the league finished negotiating the
YouTube drum Sunday ticket deal, so our percentage is still

(36:29):
being worked out because of the media kicker. So we
get forty eight point, you know, to of all revenue.
And that's one thing um that I, you know, somewhat
laugh at. Whenever the league signs a big new TV deal,
you always get the people who are like, oh, NFLPA
got hoodwinked, like why they're not getting any of this.
It's like, no, we we want them to sign the

(36:50):
biggest deals possible because we get our percentage of all
of those deals. So we like, if we were making
math easy, we get of all the revenue brought in
by the league. If we say, I took some took
some notes for an easy quick math, if the lead
brings an eighteen billion dollars in revenue, we get it,
which is about eight point six billion dollars we get

(37:10):
for all player costs. Anything that players receive that comes
out of that forty percent, about eight percent goes to
the salary cap, which is about six point nine billion
dollars or about two sixteen million per club, and goes
to the benefits. All of those benefits we're talking about
comes out of our player share, and that's about one
point seven billion dollars or fifty four million dollars per club,

(37:34):
which funds all the benefits, the four oh one k
the cap, the player performance, all of those The player
performance is a great thing that came up with by
the players. The players came up with this idea of
how do we get more money in the pockets of
what we deem our core players, which are the minimum
salary guys, the special teams guys, and the more you play,
the more you get paid. Coming up with those benefits
and finding ways to get money to people, um evenly

(37:57):
distributed where everybody's getting their share, no matter if you're
a starter, no man, if you're a backup, if you're
a Hall of Fame player, or you're you're just scraping by,
you know, getting on a roster fifty man, you're all
getting that same benefit that all comes from our players share.
And this all came to light, I guess, and I
guess became a public issue because of the mar Hamlet situation.

(38:19):
You know, thank goodness, he's okay, Thank goodness, you know,
everything worked out and he's still recovering, and um, it's
been a blessing, you know, because it's it's it's had
a lot more positive press than negative, and I think
more positive have come from it. But people learn that, hey,
we don't have lifetime healthcare. You know, we got five
years of healthcare after we're done. And it's been a
point of contention for a lot of players for a

(38:40):
long time, like that's something we want and as players
and as a now former player. Now you you think, oh,
you think we're not in the room fighting for for
a lifetime healthcare. You think we don't, We're not sore
and hurt every game we are now. The league fights
us as hard as any anything, any subject, any anything

(39:01):
we fight for. They are hardest against that in money.
What is that? I think unlike probably other sports leagues,
I think the NFL specifically looks at the pie that
all revenue as their money, and it's almost like they're
gifting it to us through negotiations of like, you guys

(39:22):
can have this for I think other leagues look at
it more of a partnership and that you know both
it only operates because both groups are efficiently working together.
I think our league is probably the most adversarial of anywhere.
It really has looked at as the owners see it
as their money and um, you know they do not
like giving it up to us. Um, So I think

(39:44):
that's really what it's what it's looked at. I want
to point out one more thing, because when we talk
about all the benefits, there are some benefits I think
players aren't always aware of, and I know fans aren't
aware of where I don't like speaking in one particular issue.
But if you look at a guy who gets hurt
and can never play again, a a lot of people say, like,
what what happens? How do they get taken care of?
We have like the injury protection benefit, which for a

(40:06):
guy that can't ever play again, the next year if
he can't play, he gets a percent of his salary um.
That's a benefit. The next year this is this is
a change in the cb A. Previously it was fifty
of his his salary. The second year he gets percent
of salary again. So if a guy gets hurt, he
has protection, is still getting his full salary even though
it's not guaranteed contracts. What we can get into that,

(40:28):
that's a benefit of how do you creatively find ways
to protect guys in the most vulnerable situations to make
sure they're taken care of? And those are the things
that nobody hears about that realizes our union has done
that work and has has put thought and planning into
protecting players money and making sure they're taken care of um.

(40:49):
And again those are fights you know. I saw I
was reading through your your Twitter comments when you were
asking about like what questions and people were asking about
win wins. We wish the league would look at player
safety or player protections or player benefits as win wins, right,
But they don't. They don't look at as win wins
because they look at it as their money um and
any time they're giving up their money, they see it

(41:10):
as a loss. So all of those are always fights.
It's it's never simple like, well, you know that should
be easy. You should easily be able to protect players
who have career ending injuries on the field. It ain't
easy at any easy answer. We can go into the
fights we had over concussions for years before we got
the lead to take them seriously and then to get
u n c s on the sidelines, and the years
it took for us to get them to take it seriously.

(41:31):
This does not have a good idea. It makes sense,
do it. It's have a good idea, fight for years
to get it in and then finally get it in.
And that's why we need the fans to to really
I mean, you guys love players. You guys at this
moment showed there's a lot of love from these fans
for these players, but that love needs to be shown
when there are issues that players have to work in

(41:53):
their best interests. When teams are working in their best interests,
we here, we're here friends all the time. Hey, they
cut a player with two years left on his deal. Hey,
it was in the best interest of the team. Hey,
the team had to do what the team had to do.
Fans seem to always understand that. But when a player
does something where it's in the best interest of the player,
it's never the player did what he had to do.

(42:13):
We support him. Hey, the players doing what he had
to do, whether it's a hold out, whether it's him
him him sitting through training camp, not coming to O
t S, whatever the case may be. We need that
same energy from the fans. And when we're talking about benefits,
because we talk about the salary cap, and the salary
cap is supposed to jump this year. You know with
all this this this money, these new media rights deals, um,
the YouTube deal included. But you know that's not gonna

(42:35):
come in until down the line, obviously, But people talk about, hey,
like why can't you ask for this or why can't
you get this, or why can't you benefit comes off
the cap. So so if if if we didn't have benefits,
if we didn't have h r A S annuities. We
didn't have tuition reimbursement Player performance, we didn't have h
t MP, we didn't have any of the benefit the

(42:57):
players have. The salary cap be what to fifty right now?
Who sixty something? Yeah? Yeah, it's that world where it's
finding that fine line. And that's why we have so
many opinions and so many thoughts, and our membership is
so diverse in a world where if you're doing the math,
we could have a world where the salary cap is
two hundred and seventy million dollars and we're giving zero

(43:19):
dollars in benefits. And there's probably some people out there,
probably play quarterback, who are saying that's great, you know,
like give me more salary cap space. I'll be making
a hundred million dollars a year. But the same thing,
you know, if you go to the other extreme and
we had a hundred and sixty million dollars in benefits
and then only you know, a hundred and ten in
the salary cap, that's not the perfect balance either. So

(43:40):
you're always trying to find that perfect balance of how
much benefits to give, how much do we put in
the salary cap? How do we balance these issues, how
do we make sure guys are protected and we're giving
everybody a fair equitable share of the benefits. Those are
the discussions, and it's never a simple because again the
money has been spent. We get the revenue, so any

(44:01):
new idea can be a great idea. Then you have
to figure out how to pay for it, and it
comes from two ways. You either get more revenue through negotiations,
you get we're now we've opened up more revenue to
build in new benefits, or you have to take a
benefit away or take the cap down. So if you
come up with a new benefit and you say, okay,
well this is gonna cost ten million dollars a year, okay,

(44:24):
well that's ten million dollars off the cap, and you
have to you have to weigh those positive news. It's
not as simple as just ask for it, get it,
and then it falls into the equation. You have to
make it fit in the equation. You have to make
it fit. And some of the things that we've made
fit are our benefits, such as preseason pay. Now fans
don't know about preseason pay. They just assume if they're
playing a football game, they're making their normal salary. They

(44:44):
are not. In the preseason, I think rookies make about
I mean it's up now, probably Bucks a game that's
make a little under if I'm not if I'm remembering
it correctly. You know, it's many years since I played
in the playoffs. The playoffs. Everybody thinks, Oh, the playoffs
the most spectacular thing that league has. It's our prettiest

(45:05):
it's our prettiest prize. Everybody's going for the super Bowl.
You would think guys are making the most money. Then no,
it's a benefit paid for by from our side of
the pie that we have to divvy out. And the
thought process when you divvy this out and you cut
it up, you're thinking of the grand scheme, like, hey,
everybody doesn't make the playoffs, so you can't you can't

(45:27):
allocate a substantial amount to something everybody won't benefit from.
But you still want guys to benefit from it. So
you got guys, You got the quarterbacks, the guys, the
big money. Guys take huge pay cuts in the playoffs.
People don't understand this. Take huge pay cuts. They're almost
going from making whatever they're making to the minimum to

(45:48):
the minimum in our league to play in these playoffs,
some guys make more in one check it sometimes it's
a quarter of their check. Then they would make the
entire playoffs, including a super Bowl win. There are guys
act that would make that in one game. So when
fans are really thinking about these things and you're like, hey,
these guys are are doing this, or these guys are
doing that, these guys are fighting to win, they're not

(46:10):
in the playoffs fighting for a check, are like hey,
like like, oh man, I'm about to get paid. Imagine
going from making I mean some guys making seven figures again,
so making Yeah, I think it's I think it's also
easy for I think people will hear that that snippet
right there you said and be like, oh, you know,
it's the classic A. The p A sucks, Like how
can you do that? And and that's until you discuss

(46:33):
the nuance of it, of the balance between more and
fair right Like, it's easy to always just be like, oh,
they should get more. It's like, okay, well, well what's fair,
right like is more pay them their exact salaries from
the season. Okay, that's gonna come out of benefits, which
means either we have to shrink the salary cap down,

(46:54):
which means everybody else, you know, the teams that don't
make the playoffs have less salary cap. They're making less
money because of it, or shrink the benefit pool down.
And now just you know, the quarterback that's already making
fifty million dollars in a year needs to make his
extra four million dollars per game in the playoffs. That's more.
But is that actually fair? And there is no right

(47:14):
there's no right answer. It's all a balance. And that's
why word democracy and we vote on how this is
broken up. And that's the thing that you know, we
we harped on at the beginning of this. You know,
the p A is the players. So if you have
a problem, you get one voice, you get one vote,
and you had come and use it. And if we
had in a world where all two thousand players said,
I want to go to REP meeting and I want

(47:35):
to sit there and I want to learn and I
want to voice my opinion, We'll fly everybody out to
REP meeting like that. We have enough resources to do
it so that there's no limit of all I wish
I could. I would, but they won't let me. You
want to come, we'll bring you out there, and there's
been so many conversations with guys who have gone into it,
gone into a REP meeting and gone into we have
a leadership summit with a bunch of young players in

(47:55):
l A who have gone in kind of thinking like, man,
I hear all these bad things about the p A.
And then they sit there and have a conversation with
you for thirty minutes and you dive into these things
and they leave being like I didn't know. I just
I just didn't know. And now I get it, and
I get it, and I want to be more involved.
And it's hard to have two thousand one off conversations.
So I think this will be really helpful, hopefully to

(48:16):
teach and show. The more guys that get involved and
put their voice and put their opinions out there, the
more fair things will be because we're hearing from more people.
We can only work with what we're given. So, like
you said with the agent analogy, like you can only
work with what you're given. We we fight, We have
certain leverage plays we can make, but they only work

(48:37):
if all two thousand guys are on the same page
and moving in one direction. And as anybody knows, it's
hard to get ten people moving in the same direction
with different opinions, and everybody is raised in different environments,
and so to get two thousand going the same direction,
when you can't get two thousand and read the information
and to to to to value with the same it's
very difficult. But I want ends to know this information too.

(49:01):
I don't want them to be secrets and the fans
to not know what's going on. You want us to
do better than when when the PA and the players
are making leverage plays to try to gain leverage and
to try to get themselves in position to gain more
money so that we can get these things like the
split in the contract that Damar Hamlin had that they

(49:21):
had to take out so that he got his full salary.
That's that's that's uh, one of the issues of the
many issues that we have to negotiate with the league.
And although in the public eye they may say, hey,
we're so player centric and we're for player safety and
whatever it means to keep our players safe, behind closed doors,

(49:42):
the conversations are much different. It's the bottom line business
they're gonna get. If it affects their bottom line. Lifetime
healthcare would come out of a player cost in an
enormous way, if it was even possible. Now, we've gone
to to a lot of companies and just wanted to
hear a quote about what it would take for lifetime healthcare.

(50:02):
Tell them some of the conversations that have had been
had j C. Yeah, I mean, no no entity would
guarantee us a plan that they would continue. So you know,
whenever you create a benefit, you're creating a benefit that's
expected to continue forever. And no company is willing to
promise or make an agreement that this benefit would continue forever.

(50:26):
And then you know, just us making our own projections,
we're looking at a huge portion of the benefit pool.
I mean not even the benefit. It would blow the
benefit pool up. It would be more than what we
have in benefits to pay for it UM. And one
thing that you know I'm working on with the staff.
Actually now I've flagged earlier in the year, and I

(50:48):
think we're going to continue on. There was a there
was a University of Michigan study I believe in two
thousand nine that I believe said of former NFL players
had healthcare, whether that the UM five years, whether that's
using their a R A, whether that's them having a
job and getting healthcare through their their own employment, whether
their wife or spouse having a job. It showed the

(51:10):
nine percent at that time had healthcare. I want to
know it's been in thirteen years. I want to know
what that number is now too, because if that number
is consistent and we're still at who have healthcare, you
know when they're done playing to pay lifetime healthcare seems
like an over expense for the nine percent that don't

(51:31):
have it. Where you try to find these other things,
like we have the hospital network where we have the
ability for players to go into these NFL designated hospitals
and all major cities of the teams and go in
and get checkups in orthopedic checks and outpatient things. Finding
ways to cover that nine percent is probably more cost
efficient then blowing up all benefits for lifetime healthcare. And

(51:55):
again that's not even a choice yet because we have
nobody offering us that choice. So it's easy just to
yell lifetime healthcare. We don't have the option, um and
and that's just the fact because our player population, as
injury rate and insurance is just a weight scale game.
And they look at it and say, all these guys

(52:17):
get hurt. They're all gonna have issues. We don't want
to be on the back end of that, of that uh,
that check figuring out how much it costs at the end,
so we don't touch it. And that's the issue we have.
So yeah, it's it's a great idea that we always
have probed into. I was looking back before we took
out on the Call of Conversations, back into the early
two thousand's about looking into lifetime healthcare. It is not

(52:38):
an issue that we just throw like. It's not like
we just said no, not possible. We look into it
all the time because it's a good idea and it's
just figuring out again what is fair and how do
we pay for every time. I love this conversation because
you hear about these things all the time, whether it's
from players, former players, fans. Why don't they just get life?
The p A didn't even fight for it. Yes, yes,

(53:01):
for dang sure we did. For dang sure we did.
And I hate the uninformed and uneducated opinions of people
who have never set in these meetings and don't know.
You know, it's easy for them to say lifetime health
care when you don't have to come up with a
plan to get it, you know. So we've tried to
mitigate that with the hospital system that we we created
so that former players can have access because a lot

(53:23):
of them don't have primary care physicians, they don't have
any hospitals to go to, they don't have a direction
to go. So now we can give them places they
can go they can get care. They're still the cap
on how much care you can get. I think it's
up to fifty thou for some it's twenty five thousand
for mental health evaluations and help in that regard. But

(53:44):
we are doing our best, and if you want us
to get more fans, you have to stand with the players.
So when we're trying to get from the league so
that we can pay for more things for the players
and we can do more for the players. Are if
you want the league to just pay for it, hey,
lead they have a lifetime healthcare out of your side
of the portion. Hey we we we Hey would not

(54:05):
fight you there, but understand that's not how they do business.
And we have these benefits. We have chares to help
our players, we have annuities to help our players. The
four O one K match comes from our side of
the portion, so we are really paying ourselves. So guys,
you have to understand that as well. It's not the

(54:26):
league taking it from their fifty one and a half
percent or fifty two whatever it is on any given
day and paying a four one K to the players.
That's not what's happening. What we negotiated for, we're taking
a portion and giving it to our players retirement funds.
So talk about the former players, because there are a
lot of former players that are very frustrated saying the

(54:46):
union doesn't do anything for him, and that's not true.
The one thing that every at least in recent memory,
every group of players when we negotiate a new cb
A have reached back and things for former players to
increase their benefits, to give them more. And that is
not that is not a mandate like that. That is

(55:07):
each group making that same choice to give back to
the group that shoulders. We stand out again, we are
a union in which we are past president future and
we make decisions within that realm of we're looking back
at how we can help guys who are no longer
part of the bargaining unit, as well as setting the
future up who are in eighth aid right now, but

(55:30):
are gonna be in our chairs, you know, during the
next CBA discussion, and how do we do that? So,
like in b A, we increase the pension payments to
ten thousand former players. We had seven hundred former players
that were not qualified for a pension because we used
to have a four year vest and now we're down

(55:50):
to a three year vest. So we had seven d
players that were at four year at four years but
you know, have played three, but you couldn't get to
four and not if they were playing nowadays, they would
have qualified. We went back and have given them a pension.
And the amount of stories we heard from guys in
that pool that they had kept going to training camps
and kept just trying to get one more year so

(56:12):
they could vest, and they couldn't do it. And now
for our guys to be like, no, we aren't. We're
gonna take care of those guys and we're gonna give
those seven under guys pensions and treat them as we
are treated now is three years. Like that's a that's
a huge life changing decision that we made for those guys.
Players didn't have an h r A and we received
a fifty dollar h RA A account to pay for

(56:34):
healthcare reimbursement. Again we're talking huge numbers. Then you touched
on the NFL Designated Hospital Network. Those are you know,
finding creative ways to help former players get the aid
in the money and the help they need. UM. And
that's not even touching on the trust in the p
AF and and all these other union specific things that

(56:57):
we do to help those players. So the list goes
on and on, but that is something we call kind
of filling in the donut holes UM where each C
B A there are things that can kind of fall
through the cracks. And then after you get a little perspective,
you look back and be like, man, you know the
pre ninety three years or the people who went on
this strike, like they missed out on this, let's make
sure they get it back now. And again that all

(57:18):
comes out of the current players share. So when we
talk about we spend it, we get that's a choice
between our players deciding the salary cap should go up
more or you want to know what, now, we'll we'll
take that money out of the cap and we're gonna
pay those guys to make sure they're taken care of.
I don't think our current players get enough credit for
always making that decision, because again it's not mandatory. That's
a bunch of guys always deciding. You know, eventually we're

(57:40):
gonna be in there their shoes. And we hope the
future generations take care of us like we're going to
take care of the previous generation. And that's huge. And
that's because of their respect in the regards that our
men have for the past generations and the shoulders we
stand on and the gains and the sacrifices that they
made before us. And I think that's the reason it happens.
And I and again, I think it's because of the uninformed,

(58:02):
uneducated opinions. You know, a lot of people don't have
this information and so they continue, you know, but have
strong opinions. They have strong voices and strong opinions, but
without the information. So if you have the information and
you are educated on the subject, feel free to make
your opinion. You don't have to agree with us, you
don't have to feel like we're right, but understand, we

(58:23):
are doing our best, and we are doing the best
that with what we have and the best aim and
and and thoughts and and process for our players. Everything
is in the best interests of our players, and that
is always at the forefront, and anybody who says otherwise
is uneducated and uninformed. I think. I think the best

(58:45):
perspective too, is like when a cb A finishes, there's
never like a moment where we just like let out
a breath and are like, we did it. We're done,
Like that gets signed, and the next step is like, Okay,
what didn't we get what we need? How do we
get it? We're gonna start planning for ten years from now,
the next CBA or the next fight. So this idea
that you know, we're we're happy with everything we got.

(59:05):
We felt like you know, when a CBA passes, you
feel like you got a fair deal that the majority
of players agree is acceptable. But you're always looking at things.
You know, a compromise by definition is imperfect because both
sides had to come off their goal. Um, And I
think there are sometimes people just don't understand how wide
ranging our membership is and their their beliefs, Like I

(59:27):
think the seventeenth Game is a perfect example because everybody
says like you're you're stupid for accepting it, stupid idea,
but you have to understand the wide ranging opinions of
our membership. Right, Like a guy like me or a
guy like you, Richard, we weren't playing in the preseason, right,
so getting another game is more work because we weren't
playing in that game and now we're playing an extra game.
So you heard a lot of people voice that opinion

(59:48):
of like, I don't like this because you're making me
do more. The vast majority of our membership, the long snapper,
the special team's guy, the backups, they were playing in
that fourth preseason game and ways, so the spectrum for
them is I'm not playing more. I was playing in
that preseason game anyways. Now you're gonna make it a

(01:00:09):
regular season game. Fine, the same amount of football for me,
and you're giving me a raise minimum salary. Okay, well
you're you're paying me more for the same amount of work.
So it's really easy just to kind of throw your
hands and be like, you guys are stupid for accepting that.
You have to understand there are a wide ranging of
of opinions and perspectives of what they do and what
their priorities are in our membership. Um, So it's not

(01:00:30):
as always as as simple as people make it out
to be. It's never that simple. And the minimums have
increased substantially and they will continue to increase um. I mean,
by just about eight everybody will be making a million.
Every rookie that comes into the league will be making
at least a million dollars um. Six first year I
mean second year players will be making at least a

(01:00:52):
million dollars um. And that's who we're fighting for a
lot of times because the majority of our league is
on minimum contracts, so we look for a way. It's
sixty on minimum salary players, the core players, and that's
what we fight for because those are the guys long
term who we want to to to leave this game
with something. We want to leave this game as financially

(01:01:14):
secure as we possibly can make you. Whether it's player
performance you say, hey, I only started for two years
and I was a rookie undrafted free agent, Well, player
performance shouldn't. Shouldn't make you as old as we can
and that will increase over the next couple of years.
And so we're always looking for ways to help our
core guys in every way we can. We're always open

(01:01:34):
to more ideas and more conversation, but you've got to
show up to the meetings to have those conversations and
to be a part of them, and to have as
strong of an opinion that some of these people do.
You have to be there. You know, when you're not
there and you're not inputting any information or putting any
work in, it's tough to honor the conversations that you
have in or the opinions you're having. J C. I

(01:01:55):
really appreciate you coming on. If there's any last thought
you want to give, please feel free. Yeah, let me
me had one more thing, because you know, we've preached
so much in this conversation about unity and coming together
and doing things collectively. Um, and I think that's sometimes
hard to picture in our business. So I want to
give an example of like how it works and what
it looks like. And I go back to COVID. You know,
obviously you were in those discussions. You were in those

(01:02:17):
fights where we were fighting with the league over how
the COVID year was going to go, both financially and
health and safety. And with COVID, you're not just talking
about the health and safety of what we normally do
on the field. You're also talking about health and safety
of dealing with you know, an unknown pandemic. And we
were in those fights four months, having the same fight,
bang our head against the wall, asking for the same things.

(01:02:38):
And we were doing these all player calls. We were
getting a thousand guys to get on a call to
learn what was going on. They were all asking the
same thing, like why why don't we have answers? You
never have answers, And we finally told them like, if
you want answers, we can give you them. We can
call Roger right now and say we'll take whatever deal
you want to put on the table, but they're gonna
be shitty answers. If you want the right answers, we

(01:02:59):
need stuff from you guys to to help us get there.
Because it's not just me or Richard or the EC
yelling at the owners to do the right thing. We
need the leverage to do it. And finally what we
saw was the hashtag we want to play. We had
over four hundred players voice their opinions of we deserve
the protections that we know are right and we're and
we're not happy about it. In that same day we

(01:03:21):
got those protections. Um, so we we finally get what
we wanted and what we've been asking for four months
because we stood together in a group of players made
that public stand. So it is possible. We've done it
in recent history, and we just need to do it
more often. So you're telling me, if we can get

(01:03:43):
two thousand guys to stand together and make a stand,
we can probably get a lot of things we want
in this next c B A. Yeah, that that's always
that in at our core. Like I said to start,
we are a union. And I know we talked about
having more fans support, even if we had no fan support,
if you have two thousand guys standing together, the workers themselves,

(01:04:06):
and that's what we are. And I know sometimes it's
easy to describe us as players and go down what
I hate of hearing of it's a privilege to play
and all this stuff. We are workers and that's what
we are, just like any other union. And when the
teachers go on strike, or the nurses go on strike,
or the teamsters go on strike, they don't have fans
supporting them, right like, it's not like they need that,
but they stand together and say, we know what we deserve,

(01:04:30):
and we know what respect looks like to us, and
we're not going back to work until we get it.
We can get guys to that mindset. It's a totally
different discussion, it's totally different negotiations. It's a totally different
conversation and all these ideas that people throw out. The
world opens up when we get into that aspectrum. I
appreciate you joining us. We'll have to do this again

(01:04:52):
sometimes because I'm sure this topic will come up again,
but I really appreciate your educated and informed responses. Absolutely
Rich again, appreciate you you lending your platform to the discussion.
I hope more current informer guys who have podcasts like
yourself will open it up as well, because I think
it's a valuable, interesting discussion that will be helpful to everybody.

(01:05:12):
I agree. I agree. Appreciate your brother. I'll see you soon,
all right, Thanks man the volume