Every sports fan with a brain had to enjoy the recent NBA free agency season. The league flattened out. Players moved from team to team. Next year will be a whole new year in the NBA. It’s exciting. Basketball owned the sports world for one week from June to the beginning of July. You know who else loved the NBA offseason bonanza? The league, owners, and the television partners who have invested in covering free agency.
Those folks made some money with free agency coverage and hype. Just look at how many pieces of media were created around unhindered free agency. There were podcasts, articles and commentary, and television programs dedicated to a time when there wasn’t even a single game played. It was good for the popularity of the game. The thing is, that could never happen in the NFL.
The reason is simple: the franchise tag. Without the franchise tag, we could have had bidding for a ton of interesting players — mostly Edge players — this offseason. Sure, Frank Clark and Dee Ford wouldn’t have been traded, but them taking multiple visits would still be interesting. Imagine what would happen with a bunch of quarterbacks. It would be fun.
That’s where the NFL could actually benefit. They could have more focus on them during early free agency. Look, we focus on it anyway, but it’s not as close to as big as what happened in the NBA. NFL free agency could be even crazier because there’s no player salary structure in place like the NBA. We know how big the deals can be in the NBA because players are limited by the number of years they’ve played in the NBA. In the NFL, that doesn’t happen. Contracts could be enormous. I am all for hearing about a massive bidding war for Jadeveon Clowney.
Of course, this has as good a chance of happening as me making the NFL — which is zero unless I suddenly become an amazing kicker or a team is looking for a holder with three years of high school experience. The franchise tag is too important. It limits player movement and puts a cap on how much players make by limiting the free market. The NFL would need a whole lot of concessions in the new CBA for the franchise tag to up and disappear. It doesn’t matter how much money they could make off more television time from free agency. It simply doesn’t add up. But man, it would be a lot of fun.