Ali Marpet quotes highlight the NFLPA’s current conundrum

[Captain Fear]

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As the NFL and NFL Players Association try to hammer out a deal that would finalize coronavirus protocols for training camp, recent comments from Buccaneers tackle Ali Marpet illustrate the challenge the NFLPA faces in protecting players.

Marpet, who serves as the team’s NFLPA representative, spoke to JoeBucsFan.com regarding various issues relating to practicing and playing in a pandemic. As to the ultimate collection of rules and regulations proposed to the union by the league, Marpet provided this ominous observation: “For any reason, if [NFLPA leadership] felt we have taken undue risk, I don’t think the NFLPA would recommend coming back.”

Uh-oh. That would be a major problem if the NFLPA won’t recommend the players coming back. Because we know that players always follow the recommendations of the NFLPA. Except when they don’t.

In the very same set of remarks, Marpet proved that point by defending his teammates’ defiance of the NFLPA’s recommendation regarding offseason workouts under the leadership of quarterback Tom Brady.

“It’s not enforcement, just advisory,” Marpet said regarding the NFLPA’s recommendation that players should not work out in groups until training camp, adding that each player must decide whether to participate but that all should understand the risks.

Yes, each player must decide whether to participate but that all should understand the risks. So what happens if the NFL and NFLPA ultimately reach impasse as to the various steps to be taken in 2020 (e.g., the NFL says there will be two preseason games, there will be mandatory hotel stays during camp, there will be 11-on-11 activities in practice, there will be more than 20 players in the facility for the first three weeks of camp, there will be full face shields, etc.)? If the NFLPA recommends that the players don’t show up for training camp and the regular season, how many of them actually will stay away?

Will Tom Brady stay away? Will any player who is actively ignoring the NFLPA’s recommendation on group workouts prior to training camp stay away?

Sure, some players would opt to stage a wildcat strike. But those players would be quickly replaced by other players, given that the supply of willing and able football players continues to dramatically outweigh the demand.

Thus, while the NFL is trying to work with the union on this, the overwhelming weight of the leverage rests with the league. The challenge, however, becomes getting all players to buy in to the 2020 protocols willingly and voluntarily, in order to ensure not only that they’ll follow the rules while at the facility but that they’ll conduct their personal lives in a way that minimizes the chances of the kind of outbreak that would cause the entire system to collapse.