{"id":157576,"date":"2025-06-25T14:48:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T14:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/157576\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T14:48:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T14:48:10","slug":"atlanta-falcons-owner-arthur-blank-testified-in-anti-collusion-grievance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/157576\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank testified in anti-collusion grievance"},"content":{"rendered":"

ExploreQ&A with Falcons\u2019 Arthur Blank on DEI, other topics, including the NFL draft<\/a><\/p>\n

The subsequent deals for Russell Wilson, Lamar Jackson<\/a> and Kyler Murray were not fully guaranteed. According to court documents, former NFLPA President JC Tretter used a derogatory term for Wilson for not following the Watson precedent of a fully guaranteed contract. <\/p>\n

The Falcons were in the bidding for Watson, of Gainesville, who also was a former ball boy for the team. Watson accepted the Cleveland deal.<\/p>\n

The hearing was held in New York over 10 days in July and August of 2024. The full report was published Tuesday by Meadowlark Media\u2019s Pablo Torre. <\/p>\n

In addition to Blank, other owners who testified included John Mara (New York Giants); Jimmy Haslam (Cleveland Browns); Michael Bidwill (Arizona Cardinals); Greg Penner (Denver Broncos); Steve Bisciotti (Baltimore Ravens); Robert Kraft (New England Patriots); and Dean Spanos (Los Angeles Chargers).<\/p>\n

ExploreKirk Cousins\u2019 salary puts Falcons\u2019 payroll at top of NFL<\/a><\/p>\n

The System Arbitrator Christopher F. Droney concluded that \u201cthe NFL Management Council encouraged the 32 member clubs of the NFL to reduce guarantees in future contracts with players at the March 2022 annual meeting of the club owners, the clubs did not join in such a collusive agreement and did not act in accordance with one as to the three quarterbacks named in the initial arbitration demand or to other veteran players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blank discussed the league\u2019s salary cap system. <\/p>\n

\u201c(T)he cap is a closed-loop system,\u201d Blank said according to the court document. \u201cYou get X number of dollars and no matter what your personal wealth may be, it makes no difference. Every team has exactly the same salary cap, and you have to operate within that cap.\u201d<\/p>\n

ExploreRead more about the Falcons<\/a><\/p>\n

Blank also made a statement about Watson\u2019s contract that was reported in the media. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to leave that to (Browns owners) Jimmy and Dee Haslam to make their own judgment,\u201d Blank said. \u201cThe fact that it\u2019s $80 million above the highest other contract ever given guaranteed in the history of the league (that is) 102 years old says a lot. Whether or not most teams in the NFL \u2014 or any other team \u2014 would\u2019ve committed to that, I don\u2019t know. That certainly is a huge commitment.\u201d <\/p>\n

The management council made a slideshow presentation advocating against future guaranteed contracts. <\/p>\n

Blank testified that he generally remembered the meeting and the discussion of the slides. He stated that hearing the presentation did not cause him to reduce guarantees for his team. <\/p>\n

After the Watson signing, Jackson was available the next offseason. <\/p>\n

The Falcons publicly stated they were not interested and handed the starting quarterback job to Desmond Ridder<\/a>. They would go on to sign Kirk Cousins to a four-year deal worth up to $180 million<\/a> and take Michael Penix Jr. in the 2024 draft<\/a>. <\/p>\n

ExploreFalcons\u2019 Arthur Blank: \u2018We obviously don\u2019t believe we tampered\u2019 before signing Kirk Cousins<\/a><\/p>\n

The Falcons were found guilty of tampering in the signing of Cousins. <\/p>\n

Blank testified that Jackson\u2019s injuries were a factor in the Falcons public decision not to try to sign the Ravens star, according to the court document. He also testified that keeping their quarterback rather than pursue Jackson also gave them more (salary) cap room flexibility. <\/p>\n

The NFL and NFLPA have not commented on the ruling. Also, the Falcons did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case. <\/p>\n

On the size of Watson’s contract and if the NFL owners are distressed: \u201cI think you have to leave that to (Browns owners) Jimmy and Dee Haslam to make their own judgment. The fact that it’s $80 million above the highest other contract ever given guaranteed in the history of the league that is 102 years old, you know, says a lot. Whether or not most teams in the NFL or any of the teams, the NFL would have committed to that kind of contract, I don’t know. That certainly is a huge commitment.”<\/p>\n

– AJC, April 1, 2022, during an owners meeting in Palm Beach, Fla. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ExploreQ&A with Falcons\u2019 Arthur Blank on DEI, other topics, including the NFL draft The subsequent deals for Russell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2074],"tags":[2566,23809,223,254,2554,35599,224,7,6,35597,35598],"class_list":{"0":"post-157576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-falcons","8":"tag-ajc-freelancer","9":"tag-arthur-blank","10":"tag-atlanta","11":"tag-atlanta-falcons","12":"tag-atlantafalcons","13":"tag-buckhead","14":"tag-falcons","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-super-bowl-lxii-nfl","18":"tag-whitley-hotel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114744557828616624","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}