Thomas Morstead: If players reject CBA, we will pay for it down the road

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Saints punter Thomas Morstead serves as a member of the NFL Players Association’s Executive Committee. On Thursday, after several days of significant societal changes demonstrating with certainty the uncertainties that the NFL and the rest of the sports world now face, Morstead took to Twitter to explain that the prudent move for the players is to take the CBA that’s on the table.

“Our union is in a position to secure economic certainty in a very uncertain climate,” Morstead wrote. “The sports world is not immune to global events as we all can see. No deal is ever perfect, but there are real improvements to most areas that impact current and former players. If we turn this deal down, I believe we will pay for it down the road. Personally, this is not fear mongering, it’s just reality.”

Morstead mentions “fear mongering” because opponents of the deal have tried to claim that the best argument for accepting the proposed CBA comes from “fear of what may happen.” As explained earlier today, the NFLPA has the rare opportunity to accept an offer that was crafted before the global events that have made the proposed CBA far less attractive to the NFL than it was a week ago.

The proposed CBA came from negotiations that culminated in a deal that was endorsed by NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith and former NFLPA president Eric Winston — before public-health and economic circumstances changed. If the players reject the current deal, the next offer will not be as good as this one. And if/when push comes to shove, the same dynamics that caused the 1987 strike to fail and that ended the 2011 lockout before games and game checks were forever lost will tilt the playing field in favor of owners who: (1) have more than enough resources to pay all bills (and then some) during a work stoppage; and (2) have owned and/or will own their franchises far longer than the average duration of a player’s career.

It’s a simple calculation, one of the few simple propositions at a time of great complexity.