Bills’ chances could be hurt by new CBA

By Connor Byrne  |   Friday, March 10, 2006  |  Comments( 0 )

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Wednesday, 30 of the NFL's 32 owners voted for the league's new collective bargaining agreement proposal. The dissenting votes came from Cincinnati Bengals' owner Mike Brown, and Buffalo Bills' owner Ralph Wilson. Since the voting ended, many of my fellow media members have verbally thrashed and ruthlessly mocked the 87-year-old Wilson.

"It's a very complex proposal and I really didn't understand it. I didn't think I was a dropout but maybe I am," said Wilson.

That quote sent shockwaves throughout the NFL world as Wilson was berated and portrayed as nothing but a senile, old curmudgeon with no business owning a team in today's league.

Although I've dealt plenty of verbal blows to Wilson and his tactics in the past, I'm here to announce that his quote really isn't that big of a deal. Do we honestly believe that Wilson was the only owner who didn't understand the new, extremely complex proposal?

According to Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, a group of nine owners came to the forefront and really pushed for this new collective bargaining agreement. In my humble opinion, some of the owners just went along with these nine because they were mentally and physically exhausted from this whole process; wouldn't all of this talk of dollars and cents make you want to go home to your mansion too?

Why should Wilson be harassed like a quarterback behind a bad offensive line when Brown - the aforementioned Bengals' owner - goes untouched? Nobody has questioned Brown for his dissenting vote, but Wilson has been criticized endlessly. In fact, Wilson was among the few owners throughout this process to come up with an honest quote regarding his feelings. Rather than tow the company line, Wilson stated an opinion likely held by many of the league's owners. Unfortunately, they just didn't have the guts or the energy to say it.

In all honesty, Wilson was looking out for the best interests of the Buffalo Bills first and foremost. As one of the league's small-market clubs, the Bills were going to be among the teams most affected by this labor process. No deal on a new CBA would have spelled disaster for teams like Buffalo; big-market owners like Jerry Jones of Dallas, or Dan Snyder of Washington would have turned the NFL into a monopoly because there would not have been a salary cap past the upcoming 2006 season.

The deal that was reached set the cap at $102 million for '06, and $109 million for '07. In some ways an increase like that almost makes it seem like there's no cap at all for the teams that bring in less revenue. Although the Bills will have a good deal of cap space this offseason, they could struggle to recruit big-name free-agents because of the climate in Buffalo and some players' desire to become members of organizations that have had a better tradition of winning than the Bills.

Therefore, the Bills were basically stuck between a rock and a hard place in the labor negotiations; should Wilson have signed off on the CBA and wounded his organization in terms of competitiveness?; or should he not have signed the accord and wounded his organization in terms of competitiveness? Either way, this labor mess would have and probably will lead to negatives for the Bills' organization.

The onus at this point is put very much on Bills' GM Marv Levy to go out and entice solid free-agents to come to Buffalo, while making sure he selects the right players in drafts to make the Bills into a proud franchise for the first time in a painfully lengthy period of time. Levy's second era with the Bills' organization will begin in earnest on Saturday morning at 12:01 am with the start of free-agency.

Without Wilson's presence, the AFL would not have been founded back in 1960; thus, it would not have merged with the NFL to form the tremendous league that we see before us today. Also, in a somewhat little known fact, Wilson loaned money to legendary Oakland Raiders' owner Al Davis to found his football team four and a half decades ago. In this day and age, it's hard to imagine that Wilson ever gave Davis a loan, but without it, the Raiders never would have formed.

As for Wilson, someday soon, much like former President Richard Nixon, people like myself won't have him to kick around anymore. Unfortunately, the NFL will be worse off for it.

--Connor Byrne can be reached at cbyrne@realfootball365.com
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