If Dez Bryant and Demaryius Thomas don't sign long-term contracts with their respective teams by Wednesday's deadline for franchise players to do so, the NFL players' union plans to move ahead with collusion charges against those teams, a source close to the situation told ESPN.
The NFLPA informed the Dallas Cowboys and the Denver Broncos on Monday that they need to preserve any emails, phone records, texts and records of other communication between the two teams, according to the source.
According to a source, Cowboys executive vice president/COO Stephen Jones told Bryant during a recent conversation that he'd had a conversation with Broncos GM John Elway about the negotiations, which the union believes would constitute a violation of the CBA's anti-collusion rules.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
Oops. With collusion, you have to watch what you say. With Dallas, it makes sense to sign their player long term, but with Denver giving Thomas all that guaranteed long term money when his QB next year will be Brock Osweiller would be silly.
The NFL was brilliant to add the salary cap, most times fans could care less what players are getting paid, but giving Demariyus 65 million means Denver has less money to spend on a new QB or offensive lineman.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
Looks like DT signed $70 million, 5 year, $43.5 million guaranteed. Hmm, near identical contracts signed within 15 minutes of each other. Nope, no collusion.
"Remember to always be yourself. Unless you can be batman. Then always be batman." Unknown
Could be agent collusion? DT's agent may not have agreed to a deal until he saw what Dallas was offering Bryant.
Dog worried about collusion when players are being paid tens of millions of dollars. Would they have got contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars if the Broncos and Cowboys hadn't talked?
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
Dog not worried. Not sure how they could get contracts worth hundreds of millions when salary cap for the 53 man roster is $133 million, and Peyton is getting his $20 million or so.
NFL contract numbers are meaningless, only number that means anything is the guaranteed money. DT's contract is essentially a two year deal worth around the guaranteed amount of $35 million, plus an additional 13.5 million spread over the final three years, mostly in the third year. So if he is not producing at an extremely high level after 3 years, he will probably be forced to "renegotiate" or be cut. The $70 million number will probably never be reached.
"Remember to always be yourself. Unless you can be batman. Then always be batman." Unknown
