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Sean Gilbert points to increasing franchise value

Gilbert

As the election for the next NFLPA executive director necessarily is being determined via the team-by-team vote for player representatives, primary challenger Sean Gilbert hopes to make his case to the men who eventually will be deciding between incumbent DeMaurice Smith, Gilbert, and anyone else who runs.

On Friday morning, Gilbert sent an email to the media with a couple of points that Gilbert surely hopes will be publicized.

First, Gilbert reiterates he will not advocate a strike by the players. “History has shown us that strikes by NFL players have not been successful,” Gilbert said.

He’s right, because the players typically cross the picket line or otherwise cave. And so Gilbert’s strategy more likely would be to provoke a lockout and to refuse to a deal on terms he doesn’t find acceptable, aware the owners will be far more resolved than the players to keep the game shut down.

Meanwhile, the NFLPA would decertify and file an antitrust lawsuit attacking the legality of a lockout in the absence of a union, hoping to eventually recover a multi-billion-dollar award in court.

Second, Gilbert points out, apart from any money that may have changed hands under the new labor deal, franchise values have increased (based on estimates from Forbes) by 40 percent.

Ultimately, the question become enough players (and, more specifically player representatives) want to push of a new labor deal before the current one ends -- or whether they’re content to stick with the current arrangement, aware of the reality that an attempt to blow up the current CBA based on an alleged case of collusion could result in an even worse deal or, quite possibly, a full year without football.