According to NFL analyst Mike Florio, collusion may not only affect players. He thinks it’s also being reflected in coaches. Despite the fact that coaching compensation is exempt from the league’s salary cap, Florio claims that NFL owners have long been working behind the scenes to reduce the value of coaching contracts.
According to Florio, owners are essentially banding together to make sure no team overpays for coaches through unofficial agreements and common practices. Furthermore, he asserts that this has been happening for decades and is not a recent trend. However, what proof is there for this theory?
According to reports, the league declined to release the compensation report because they were worried about the legal ramifications and possible lawsuits. Silence, in Florio’s opinion, talks loudly. Why cease releasing the data now if there was nothing to conceal? He said:
“If these teams are colluding as it relates to the players, that’s not the end of it. There are other areas where they may collude. I’m a firm believer that they’ve been colluding as it relates to coaching pay for decades. They have held down what coaches make. There is no salary cap, and there is no salary floor. So they lock arms and they make sure no one goes crazy and pays a coach $40 million a year.”
In the end, the arbitrator who heard the collusion case concluded that there was not enough evidence to punish the NFL or its owners. The league and its owners got away with it despite what many saw as a blazing gun.
