re: Some form of collusion in the Collins Draft Situation??

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by Chad504boy
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If he wanted to go back into the 2016 draft then he would NOT have put out the draft ultimatum.


You're assuming he had intelligent agents.

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Due to the timing of the incident, his best option was ask to be placed in Supplemental Draft. That was denied. He then needed to make a decision on whether he would be willing to sit out s year. I assume his agent knew the rules so I believe he wanted to go UDFA route if he wasn't selected by rd 3. But yeah I guess his agents could be clueless

you are conveniently leaving out the second and most important part of the definition.

I can have a secret agreement with Nike, and I did when working in college football, but it was not an effort to lie or be illegal. Therefore it is not collusion.


Here is your legal definition of collusion

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Collusion occurs when two persons or representatives of an entity or organization make an agreement to deceive or mislead another. Such agreements are usually secretive, and involve fraud or gaining an unfair advantage over a third party, competitors, consumers or others with whom they are negotiating. The collusion, therefore, makes the bargaining process inherently unfair. Collusion can involve price or wage fixing, kickbacks, or misrepresenting the independence of the relationship betweeen the colluding parties.

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No it does not.

Collusion is an illegal or not being trustworthy act

and if you want to make sure here is the Meriam-Websters dictionary definition

Full Definition of COLLUSION


: secret agreement or cooperation especially for an illegal or deceitful purpose


So there goes your collusion argument

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The applicable definition of Collusion in this scenario is not how it is defined in the dictionary, but rather how is is defined in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. That's basic contract interpretation 101. A court won't look to the dictionary definition of "collusion" unless it is ambiguously defined in the CBA, which almost assuredly it is not.

He's absolutely right that an argument of collusion could be made if there was evidence that all 32 owners/teams agreed either between themselves and/or with the NFL to ensure that no team drafted Collins. Proving it is a different story. Collusion is a huge deal in the CBA and could result in a player being awarded treble (i.e. 3 X his damages) if he can prove collusion.

I believe it is only to show 14 clubs were in agreement not all 32. It is Article 16 through 18 I think. The CBA is on the NFLPA website. I haven't looked it up in a long time.


They were not in fixing salaries, they were not stating not to draft him. There is no collusion. He played chicken and lost and now he is going to "suffer" monetarily.

If the NFLPA thought there was any collusion DeMaurice Smith would have been all over ESPN and NFLN screaming. The NFLPA finally has some competent leadership with Smith.

Dude they got kicked off their respective teams and were forced to take a year off. It also definitely hurt their draft stock but there was nothing preventing them from being available day 1 of camp.

Collins was probably off limits early bc teams could not risk a pick that high not being available to play at all. My point was a 7th rd pick would have definitely been worth the risk of him not ever playing a down given his enormous upside.

Ask the MLB owners about collusion. They had to pay over $300 million for colluding not to offer contracts to free agents, and there was no documentary evidence of any secret agreement. The fact that the offers weren't made was all the evidence necessary.

Major league baseball is exempt from antitrust laws, but the NFL isn't. That means the NFL could lose triple damages if there is any evidence that the league offices communicated with the separate franchises with respect to Collins, and those communications can be interpreted as damaging to Collins' draft prospects. The league office is the embodiment of all agreements among the franchise owners, and any advice, or caution, it issued with respect to Collins that deflated his wages would be illegal.

The NFLPA has zero interest in protecting anyone until they sign an NFL contract. In fact, the NFLPA has expressly limited the ability of those without contracts from maximizing their compensation for their services. The NFLPA didn't bat an eyebrow for La'el Collins, but they have fought tooth and nail for Gregg Hardy, Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson. If the NFLPA cared about Collins, then why wouldn't they approve of his request to go into the supplemental draft? It would have cost the veterans nothing, and it wouldn't have been a precedent likely to be repeated?

The CBA could not have anticipated all events. A reasonable compromise could have been reached that mitigated the damages to Collins. If the NFLPA was truly concerned about Collins, who is almost certainly going to be a member of the NFLPA in the near future, why didn't they even issue a statement regarding his plight?

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Now the collusion part, what if all parties agreed in order to simply circumvent the CBA bc it seems that it would be in everyone's best interest in Collins unique situation.

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if they were going to circumvent the CBA they would have allowed him to pull his name out of the draft and go the supplemental route.

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Collins agent is an idiot and thought that if he wasn't drafted then he would go into next yr's draft.

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Collins got $1.6 million a three-year, fully-guaranteed deal.

Trey Flowers the 101st pick (2nd pick of the 4th round) got 4 years at $2.8 million but only $558,932 guaranteed.

his agent did the right the thing-

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Collins could earn $400,000 more per season as well and, including a likely high RFA tender in 2018, his compensation over four years as an undrafted player could still be higher than anyone picked in the second round

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Positives:
- sign with whatever team who chooses
- resign after 2 years to a mega-deal vs waiting 5 years
- sign his 3rd contract earlier than those who were drafted and given 4/5 year deal
- potential to earn more if he performs at an all-pro level