Why the NFLPA Kept Damning Collusion Evidence From Its Own Players
Plus: NHL labor news, wrestling regulations, and F1: The Movie.
Hello and welcome to another edition of Free Agent! It's a great week to climb a roof for a better view.
We've got some NFL news to cover that has a lot of layers. Then we'll talk about the NHL's labor news before moving on to wrestling regulations and F1: The Movie.
Locker Room Links
- Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) has entered the chat with a new bill regarding college sports.
- I regret to inform you the U.S. lost to Mongolia in 3X3 basketball. The story, with important context, here.
- After the original Backyard Baseball game got a new mobile version a few months ago (my brief review here), Backyard Baseball '01 is coming to mobile, consoles, and computers too, with 28 of the 31 MLB pros who were in that edition, plus you can play as all of the MLB teams (with their 2001 logos—which means the Expos should be there too).
- EA Sports is bringing the college basketball video game back, but it'll take a few years.
- The WNBA is expanding again, adding teams in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia by 2030. The franchises will pay a $250 million expansion fee, double what the coming Portland franchise paid in 2024.
- NBA free agent Malik Beasley under federal investigation in gambling probe (but they're going to need more evidence than this).
- Elsewhere in Reason: "10 of the Worst State Laws Going Into Effect in July"
- Yikes.
WHO returns to Rome? https://t.co/8eJThOxHgG
— J. (@JosipFCB93) June 25, 2025
Collusion!
In a ruling back in January, an arbiter found no collusion among NFL owners in limiting fully guaranteed player contracts, in spite of an NFL Players Association (NFLPA) allegation and some fairly damning evidence, including private text messages. (Dean Spanos, owner of the Los Angeles Chargers, sent a cringeworthy text to Michael Bidwill, owner of the Arizona Cardinals, saying "Your deal helps us for our QB next year.") The allegations and evidence for them are interesting enough on their own, but there's more drama here worth exploring.
The whole process, dating back to events in 2022, happened under wraps and only came to light last week thanks to the fantastic journalism work of Pablo Torre. It's obvious why the league owners would want to keep the allegations and evidence thereof under wraps for the sake of their reputation. But the surprising thing is, "the entity that did not want anyone else to see this 61-page document, maybe most desperately of all, happens to be the union," as Torre said on his podcast. Why did the NFLPA never go public with this, and even keep it hidden from its own players?
The apparent answer: Petty personal politics!
Don't miss sports coverage from Jason Russell and Reason.
Officially, the union told Torre "grievance rulings are typically not released." But unofficially, if the union wanted the document to go public, it would have been easy for leadership to share the document around enough that it quickly made its way to the press.
NFLPA leadership has made a habit of "operating in shadow," as Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio said on Torre's podcast. Florio and Torre spend over 15 minutes of the hourlong podcast detailing this habit, dating back to a leadership change in early 2022. It sure looks like then-NFLPA President J.C. Tretter in 2022 got his handpicked candidate selected in secret as NFLPA executive director, so that Tretter could get a newly created position as NFLPA chief strategy officer in a possible quid pro quo, allowing Tretter to have an inside track on becoming NFLPA executive director when the job opens up (NFLPA president must be an active player, and Tretter is no longer active).
What does that have to do with this arbitration document?
Torre dives into a footnote that says, "Tretter testified that he would not have criticized [Russell] Wilson if he had known that owners had a collusive agreement to limit guaranteed compensation." Another document apparently says Tretter insulted Wilson, calling him a "wuss" and using expletives (Torre did not say which expletives—come on, Pablo!). This all jeopardizes Tretter's hopes of getting his dream job of NFLPA executive director one day.
So, Torre and Florio suggest, it sure looks like Tretter kept the whole collusion arbitration process under wraps so that players' confidence in the union and him wouldn't come into question. Mission accomplished? (The initial Torre and Florio podcast, and the follow-up podcast that's basically a debate between a former team president and former union head, are both absolutely worth listening to.)
Not Iced Out
Speaking of players unions, the NHL and its players union have a new collective bargaining agreement, a four-year extension starting with the 2026–2027 season. Here are a few things that stick out to me.
The agreement ditches dress codes, instead requiring players to dress to "contemporary fashion norms"—pretty vague terminology, but seems like it will give players more freedom to express themselves. It also allows players to sign endorsement deals for wine and liquor, which will be a nice way to get famous players some extra cash. The agreement adds two more games to the regular season, fixing an imbalance where teams weren't playing all of their division rivals the same number of times—but also pushing the season's start into September (and I bet most fans would say the season is already too long).
I'm also interested in what the negotiating dynamics were over the coming mandatory neck guards. A few players started wearing these voluntarily after the death of Adam Johnson, a former NHL player who died in the United Kingdom after his neck was sliced in a freak accident during a game (the local police recently decided against charges). Seeing as most players don't wear them now despite the option, it's hard to believe the union was pushing for this. No fan wants to see a player die on the ice, of course, so perhaps league owners pushed for this to protect their pocketbooks from that possibility (this is total speculation on my part).
Ultimately, I think a four-year extension of the labor agreement was the wrong way to go. Hockey should be more popular than it is, but for some reason the system isn't working better. It's better to watch on TV and in person than basketball and baseball. It's got speed, action, and sudden drama. It should be better for owners, whose franchises should be making more money. It should be better for players, who should be making more money. Hockey needs some bold changes to get where it should be, and this four-year extension is just more of the same.
Knocked Out
It's rarely good when government regulations and sports collide. Wrestlers are governed by a complex web of overly specific state-by-state regulations, as Reason's Tosin Akintola put it in a recent piece.
A wrestler with events in three different states in the same month might need three different licenses, all of which have separate and distinct requirements. For example, Kentucky requires a Social Security number on its licensing form, but Maryland (and Missouri, notably) does not. Alabama requires proof of legal presence, which includes a work permit. Oklahoma does not require either, and applicants can receive licenses on the same day they submit their application.
In Kentucky, wrestlers must submit proof they received a physical within the last 90 days; in Maryland, the period is within 30 days. This means a wrestler from Louisville who gets a physical on March 1, satisfying Kentucky's 90-day requirement, cannot, on May 15, travel to Baltimore to compete without first going to a doctor.
Professional wrestler Miyu Yamashita was recently caught up in that regulatory web. She's Japanese but has a valid work visa for the United States. Anyone who wishes to verify her identity can easily do so. But Yamashita does not have a Social Security number. In Missouri, where Yamashita has competed before without issue, that was apparently a problem, because the Missouri Athletic Commission requires one. Hours before a recent match, Yamashita was told she could not compete because she lacks those nine magic numbers.
Yamashita missed out on potential winnings, but she wasn't the only one harmed. As Akintola wrote, "Her promoter lost the chance to market one of his biggest stars, and attendees were denied the opportunity to see a fan favorite."
Lights Out and Away We Go
I've long been waiting for the F1 movie with anxious curiosity. I'm a huge Formula 1 fan and I really didn't want them to butcher the sport—neither did the people of Formula 1, given how involved they were in the process. Thankfully, the movie is great and a really fun watch.
Some eagle-eyed F1 fans will quibble with the details—cars activating their drag reduction system when they shouldn't have, or a full safety car coming out when a real race probably would have had a virtual safety car or double-waved yellows instead. But the movie is much more realistic than the typical racing-movie trope where the main character just needs to mash the pedal harder than the villain to win.
The visual action is great, the audio is fantastic, and the plot is compelling (albeit a few notches overdramatic). It works for Formula 1 fanatics, who will spot a lot of Easter eggs, and for newcomers who appreciate heart-pounding action. In the words of my colleague Peter Suderman, who has a full review here, it's the "perfect summer movie." You should go see the movie and let me know what you think! Email me at freeagent@reason.com.
Replay of the Week
Screw it, here's Canadian football.
It's no NFL or College Football
but amazing things are happening in the CFL
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) June 30, 2025
That's all for this week. Enjoy watching the real game of the weekend, the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4 at noon ET (ESPN2). Happy Independence Day!
