TITANS TRY TO CIRCUMVENT MCNAIR RULING

Three years ago, the Tennessee Titans locked quarterback Steve McNair out of the facility, in order to avoid owing McNair his full $9 million salary for the season in the event that he dropped a 45-pound plate on his foot. McNair filed a grievance, and ultimately prevailed. Under the ruling, teams cannot prevent players from participating in the offseason program. So now the Titans are trying to circumvent the McNair ruling, via a document titled “Workout Agreement for Player Under Contract.” Under the one-page agreement, which is described as an addendum to the standard player contract, the Titans attempt to preserve the ability to keep players away from the offseason program by finagling “the sole and exclusive option” to direct the player’s participation in the program. The document also states that the player “has no contractual or other right” to engage in any offseason activities, including condition, workouts, minicamps, and organization team activities. And if the purpose of the agreement wasn’t sufficiently clear, the last sentence makes the Titans’ goal obvious: “Club may withdraw consent for Player to participate in any activity at its facilities or otherwise limit Player’s attendance at Club’s facilities at any time for any reason or no reason at the sole discretion of Club.” In English, it means that the Titans can tell the players to do exactly what arbitrator John Feerick found that the Titans were not permitted to do to Steve McNair. So what gives? Our guess is that some in-house lawyer trying to justify his or her salary in order to avoid being laid off came up with this idea, possibly based on the express or arguably implied terms of the written ruling in the McNair case. It remains to be seen if it will work. We’re hearing that some agents will instruct their players not to sign it, and we imagine that this issue could give new Executive Director DeMaurice Smith an opportunity to engage in a preliminary skirmish with management.