Filed under: FanHouse Exclusive, NFL Labor Negotiations
An NFL lockout would keep players off the practice fields this spring and summer, and might keep them off playing fields in the fall. But the March 3 expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement could keep them off your TV screen, too.The expiration of the current agreement would mean the expiration of the rights of corporate sponsors such as Gatorade, Verizon and Pepsi to use players in national ad campaigns under their contracts with the league. As a result, the players' union is talking to some of those sponsors about contingency deals in which the players would sell those rights directly to sponsors. It would provide players a potential source of revenue during a lockout, but the head of the NFLPA's for-profit wing contends that the contingency deals would be in the sponsors' best interests as well.
"If the NFL locks out the players, the sponsors get locked out of player rights," said Keith Gordon, the president of NFL Players Inc. "We've been communicating with sponsors since the summer, and our primary objective is to shield them from being put in the middle between the NFL and the players. At this point, our primary objective is to avoid disruption to their business."
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Source: http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2011/02/16/nflpa-could-deal-directly-with-sponsors-in-event-of-lockout/
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