Before addressing the unprecedented challenge that the NFL faces with its cherished competitive balance, a word about the actions of NBA players—and others—this week and any applicability, or not, to NFL players.
I was teaching my first sports law/business class of the year, actually lecturing about player rights, when a student let me know that the Milwaukee Bucks players were refusing to play in a display of peaceful protest, four years to the day that Colin Kaepernick first engaged in his peaceful protest. Beyond the timing, however, the symmetry with Kaepernick ends with what happened next. Within two days, NBA players had wrangled action steps from NBA owners, including NBA arenas being transformed into voting centers for the upcoming election.