As the NFL season ends, players worry about the ramifications of an owners' lockout if a new labor agreement isn't reached by March 3.
View full sizeBrowns tight end Robert Royal (left, with Jake Delhomme), the team's union representative, is spending his time preparing his teammates for a likely lockout when the postseason concludes.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- After Monday's season-ending post-mortems, when will we see the Browns again?
Usually, it's for the opening of the off-season conditioning program the first week in March. But this year is different.
If a new collective bargaining agreement is not reached by March 3, the players expect the owners to impose a "lockout" and suspend the 2011 season as leverage to win a more favorable agreement. If that happens, players will no longer be welcome in club facilities.
In an "exit meeting" last week among themselves, the Browns were informed by their player reps of other ramifications of a lockout.
"We're not going to be insured after March 3," said tight end Robert Royal, one of the Browns' player reps. "A lot of guys have wives and girlfriends expecting babies on the way and they're facing some critical decisions right now.
"People are trying to figure out whether to induce labor because we won't have health care after March 3. Those are things we have to try to let players know.
"That benefit is thrown out without a contract. People don't realize that. Sometimes people look at us players as being greedy. But we're not the ones asking for this. They're locking us out."
Federal COBRA laws allow existing health coverage to continue -- but it would be at the players' or union's expense. Royal said players were instructed to research the out-of-pocket costs for existing health coverage now provided by the NFL.
"I think when guys see the COBRA prices for two adults or a four-member family, and see those numbers that [non-players] pay on a daily basis, it's pretty tough," he said. "And then you talk about players with pre-existing injuries. Trying to get health care from these providers ... premiums would be boosted up by pre-existing injuries."
The union has been advising players to stash away money to get them through a lockout for months. But the health-care issue really hit home.
"It's always a surprise to some because when you come into the league and you're young, you don't see [the seriousness] right away," Royal said.
The message hit home with linebacker Marcus Benard, who recently welcomed a premature baby boy into the world.
"It was a big eye-opener," Benard said of the meeting. "We've been hearing it now for a while. As a rookie, I really didn't know what they were talking about. This year, I still didn't know too much. But the more meetings we had and the more they educated us, it is getting real. It's serious.
"It's hitting home, big time. That's something you seriously have to think about when you talk about the health of your children."
Benard has two other sons. As an undrafted player in his second season, his salary of $395,000 is minimal by NFL standards. He realizes people in the real world make only a fraction of that figure and struggle to meet their own health-care costs.
"It definitely brings to light all the things we're blessed to have in the NFL," Benard said. "You realize the possibilities that could come up and how good we have it in the NFL. How good things are for us and for our families."
That works both ways -- for players and for owners. And for everyone in between who takes a piece out of this $7 billion pie generated by fans buying tickets to games, networks paying gobs of money, and, yes, daily scribbling in newspapers and Web sites all over the universe that pump up interest in franchises that exist seemingly only to lose year after year.
Surely, the NFL owners and players will come to their senses and arrive at an agreement that doesn't tear up this license to print money?
"Some people think it'll work out because it's a [seven] billion dollar business. There's enough for everybody. But some players like myself, you always worry," Royal said.