HOW TO BE A POLITICAL PLAYA: NOTES ON POLITICS, ORGANIZING, & LOBBYING

SEPTEMBER 2023 EDITION: The Vanishing RB in Football and the Labor Implications

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Annually, September marks the start of fall. The weather slowly transforms from the summertime heat of August to the crisp weather that is typical of fall. The first Monday in September also commemorates Labor Day within the United States, and the Thursday after Labor Day is the commencement of the National Football League (N.F.L.) season. As the 2023 N.F.L. season gets underway the thing that stands out to me, both as an avid football fan and as a former union political organizer, is the vanishing N.F.L. running back.

During the summer of 2023, football fans witnessed several of the best professional running backs (Saquon Barkley, Austin Ekeler, Josh Jacobs, Dalvin Cook, and Jonathan Taylor) struggle to get what they felt was fair market value for their services. The franchise tag number for the running back position has decreased over the last number of years. In 2015 the franchise tag for running backs was $10.95 million, but in 2023 that number was down to $10.09 million, while the franchise tag for every other position has gone up. The proverbial deck is stacked against the N.F.L. running back. ?

Furthermore, of the last 13 Super Bowl Champions only 3 teams had 1,000 rushers: 1.) the 2012 Baltimore Ravens’ Ray Rice; 2.) the 2013 Seattle Seahawks’ Marshawn Lynch; & 3.) the 2016 New England Patriots’ LeGarrette Blount. For N.F.L. team owners there is no incentive to pay over the current market rate for running backs. Moreover, the last two decades have seen the decline of the 1,000-yard rushing running back, or bell-cow running back, and the rise of the phenomenon of the running back by committee, which is something that fantasy football players have been lamenting over the years. For decades an N.F.L. football team with championship aspirations HAD TO HAVE a running back that could rush for 1,000 yards. In the modern N.F.L. it is not necessary for a Super Bowl Champion to have a running back rush for 1,000 yards.

The labor implications of this are clear. The running back market has been suppressed at the expense of other position players – especially the quarterback. The notion is that running backs are a dime a dozen, while franchise quarterbacks are critical to potential Super Bowl success. If a team wants to win the Super Bowl nowadays, they need a dude at the quarterback position. But how did things get to this point.

The N.F.L. Players Association’s agreement with the N.F.L. owners in the last round of negotiations is seen as the reason for the current state of the N.F.L. running back market. Nevertheless, it is troubling that the running back position has become so devalued. The old union political organizer in me badly wants to see this dynamic changed, but without the threat of a strike, or some other labor action, this will be the situation moving forward. However, a labor action by just running backs is not going to move the needle at all. Without solidarity from other positional players, it will be difficult to right the market for professional running backs. In this regard, support from the star quarterbacks who earn north of $100 million is critical.

Now, I know what you are thinking. These are millionaires complaining about not getting more money. Who is going to feel sorry for them.? These are not real workers grinding it out for $15-$60 per hour. These are individuals who can earn generational wealth.? Even though the top N.F.L. running backs earn millions, they are fighting billionaire team owners.? This is still a classic labor-management issue. Moreover, the typical career for N.F.L. players is 3-4 years, so the players are not guaranteed to make this money because with one catastrophic injury their career is over. The N.F.L. OWNS the television ratings from September-February every year, so the money is there to pay these players their fair market value. This is an issue that warrants more attention because in this fight between millionaire players and billionaire owners, the players are at a distinct disadvantage.

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The 2023 Fantasy Football is Underway – The importance of working the Waiver Wire

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By the time the September 2023 edition of this newsletter is published, the first week of the 2023 N.F.L. season will be in the books, and the second week of the season will already have begun.? For fantasy football enthusiasts, leagues have held their drafts, and team managers are either licking their wounds from poor week 1 performances by stars, or perhaps celebrating stellar performances by surprising stars. The fantasy football season is in full swing now.

The key to success in fantasy football, post-fantasy drafts, comes down to knowing how to work the waiver wire. This is the pool of football players that were not drafted in fantasy leagues that serve as potential bench depth or bye week replacements. Any fantasy football owner that hopes to play in their league championship MUST master working the waiver wire.

In the early portion of the season, the waiver wire provides much needed depth for the onslaught of bye weeks – weeks when certain N.F.L. teams are not playing. Whenever a fantasy football owner must sit their best players during a bye week it is always a challenge to find a useful replacement. In the later part of the season, identifying a key player to add to your team could be the fuel needed to make a deep playoff run. As someone who has won four fantasy football championships, I know firsthand the importance of identifying the new it player that nobody else has paid attention to, who can give your team a lift all the way to the title.

You want to win a fantasy football championship; you must master working the waiver wire. Anyway, here’s to another fantasy football season. Good luck to all the fantasy football players out there. Finally, we must remember that fantasy football is just for fun. This means that if the real football players have a bad game, potentially costing our fantasy football teams a victory, this does not give fans the right to degrade and demean those players. It’s just fantasy football.

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HashimShomari, Government/Political Affairs Consultant

(Hashim Shomari is the Author/Publisher of From the Underground: Hip-Hop Culture as an Agent of Social Change.? He provides government affairs/political strategy consulting services in New Jersey and New York on behalf of his clients in the cannabis, affordable housing, healthcare, financial service, and economic development sectors.)