{"id":211442,"date":"2025-07-16T11:21:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T11:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/211442\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T11:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T11:21:11","slug":"we-got-an-all-time-all-star-first-plus-the-nfls-brewing-labor-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/211442\/","title":{"rendered":"We got an all-time All-Star first, plus the NFL\u2019s brewing labor fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pulse Newsletter \ud83d\udce3 | This is The Athletic\u2019s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Good morning! Hit three homers today.<\/p>\n

More of This: The best All-Star Game ever?<\/p>\n

We entered this week with all-star game stock, across the board, at an all-time low. The NBA All-Star Game is a glorified layup line, the NFL Pro Bowl is a meaningless mess and the NHL All-Star Game didn\u2019t exist this year. MLB was met with skepticism as the All-Star break began this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, MLB enters the second half on a high no one saw coming. The Home Run Derby was great. The All-Star Game? Even better \u2014 and it featured something we\u2019d never seen before. Quickly:\u00a0<\/p>\n

First, the style. Players wore their own uniforms for the first time in six years, which gets a gold star in my book. I\u2019m glad we can stop with designing new All-Star uniforms every year and then making casual fans figure out who plays for whom.
The game itself was fantastic. The NL jumped to a 6-0 lead, and the AL erased it by the top of the ninth. Throughout the game, we saw enjoyable asides (Clayton Kershaw mic\u2019d up<\/a> was hilarious) and meaningful moments, like the Hank Aaron tribute<\/a>. It was a perfect blend of effort, fun and sincerity.
And then the swing-off. The game was tied 6-6 after nine innings, which meant MLB got to use the swing-off \u2014 essentially a mini home run derby \u2014 for the first time in history. Each team picked three hitters, who all got three swings against batting-practice pitchers. The league with the most dingers won.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kyle Schwarber, one of the sport\u2019s most fearsome batters, went 3-for-3 and won the game<\/a> (and MVP) for the NL. It was so, so fun to watch live, which is more than we can say about any all-star game recent memory. Good job, baseball.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The only \u201closer\u201d last night? Poor Paul Skenes (4-8 with a 2.01 ERA), who pitched a flawless first inning and was in line for a win when it was 6-0, then saw it go poof like he has all season. Sorry, pal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s move on to more serious issues: <\/p>\n

Brewing: The NFL and a slow-churning labor mess<\/p>\n

The NFL, as a business, is as sure of a thing as we have in America. The country\u2019s most popular sports league is also the world\u2019s most profitable. Nothing appears to be threatening that status anytime soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And yet, burbling under the surface of that success is tension around labor relations, all over guaranteed money, and a seemingly organized effort to minimize it. It\u2019s a very complex (and ongoing) controversy \u2014 we have a full explainer podcast linked below \u2014 but I think it\u2019s easiest to digest chronologically:\u00a0<\/p>\n

The past: The current brouhaha began with Deshaun Watson, and more importantly, the Browns. His fully guaranteed $230 million contract incensed NFL owners, which is somewhat understandable as the deal looks like the worst in league history<\/a>. Ownership very clearly sought to minimize guaranteed money from there. See: Lamar Jackson, Russell Wilson, Justin Herbert and Kyler Murray.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The now: Last month, \u201cPablo Torre Finds Out\u201d unearthed<\/a> documents detailing how unified NFL owners were on this front. Though no collusion was technically found, the reveal left many within the league \u2014 most notably the players, who knew nothing about it \u2014 miffed. Having NFL owners text each other congratulations over less guaranteed money in a deal certainly feels collude-y!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Percolating: As our own Jacob Robinson detailed in Scoop City<\/a> earlier this week, you can see signs of this issue around the league. Notably, 30 of 32 second-round picks from this year\u2019s draft are unsigned because of guaranteed money disputes.<\/p>\n

The culprit(s): NFL owners, of course, but shockingly the NFLPA, as well. The entire concept of a union is to protect its labor class, and it appears in this case the NFLPA did the actual opposite. It\u2019s why increased scrutiny<\/a> has come upon new executive director Lloyd Howell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an entire mess that feels far from over. I strongly urge you to catch the latest episode of \u201cThe Athletic Football Show,\u201d where Torre joined Robert Mays to go through all his findings.\u00a0Watch that here:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s keep moving:<\/p>\n

News to Know<\/p>\n

Clark leaves with groin injury
Fever guard Caitlin Clark exited last night\u2019s 85-77 win over the Sun with less than a minute left in the game after sustaining a groin injury, Indiana coach Stephanie White said. Clark will be evaluated again this morning, but it\u2019s bad news for the WNBA\u2019s brightest young star, who already missed four games this season due to a groin strain in her other leg (and five more with a quad injury). See more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smart doubts Saban comeback
A perfect college football offseason storyline: Georgia coach Kirby Smart said yesterday he does not believe former Alabama coach Nick Saban will return to the sidelines, disputing a report from former Crimson Tide quarterback Greg McElroy, who downplayed his own reporting later in the day. Lovely. Of course, Ole Miss coach\/noted pot-stirrer Lane Kiffin said he does think the 73-year-old Saban will coach again, whether in college or the NFL. Fantastic theater<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lamine Yamal and \u2026 dwarfs?
Newly minted soccer superstar Lamine Yamal is facing a potential investigation over the presence of dwarfs at his 18th birthday party, a sentence I can\u2019t quite believe is real. Multiple human rights officials in Spain are incensed over the party, yet one short-statured worker hired for the party told Spanish media the entire row has threatened his group\u2019s business opportunities going forward. Read the entire saga here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More news<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb\u00a0Love The Pulse? Check out our other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What to Watch<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa Soccer: Norway vs. Italy
3 p.m. ET on Fox
It\u2019s a slim week on the sports schedule, but the Women\u2019s Euros are here to save us<\/a>. We\u2019re in the knockout rounds, and the winner of this one is through to the semifinals. The Norwegians are clear favorites.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa WNBA: Fever at Liberty
7:30 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network
This is a great matchup on the surface, but I\u2019m curious to see how Indiana handles another stiff test, potentially without Caitlin Clark. Worth a look. Sadly, we won\u2019t see any sideline hats<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Get tickets to games like these here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pulse Picks<\/p>\n

Scottie Scheffler is no robot, despite what you may think. His deep thoughts yesterday in Ireland, where he\u2019s preparing for the Open Championship, took the golf world by surprise. Brendan Quinn contextualized it perfectly<\/a>. What a golfer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A very cool story from Jayna Bardahl: If you want to notice the NFL\u2019s female coaching surge, just look in the weight room<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The NBA\u2019s board of governors met yesterday in Las Vegas. Top of mind: expansion<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yes, sigh, there is tremendous urgency around LSU\u2019s opener at Clemson. Brian Kelly knows it<\/a>. So do I, because I am nervous two months out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Bruce Feldman\u2019s story about the young reporter whose life was changed<\/a> by Colorado coach Deion Sanders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most-read on the website yesterday: Rustin Dodd\u2019s great story on why Amanda Anisimova\u2019s emotional post-match interview after her blowout Wimbledon loss was actually a masterclass in handling failure<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(Top photo: Kevin C. Cox \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pulse Newsletter \ud83d\udce3 | This is The Athletic\u2019s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,6060,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-211442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114862652629152862","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211442","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=211442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}