Article Instance

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{
    "pk": 63020,
    "title": "Tackling the Economic Duress Problem with the NFL Franchise Tag",
    "subtitle": null,
    "abstract": "<p>Since the National Football League (“NFL”) created the Franchise Tag in 1993, 245 NFL players have been offered a one-year franchise tag contract that prevented them from benefitting from the free agent market to realize their true value. NFL players used to have an avenue of suing the NFL by dissolving their union, the National Football League Players Association (“NFLPA”), and challenging the Collective Bargaining Agreement (“CBA”) under antitrust law. However, the Eighth Circuit Court foreclosed such challenges in Brady v. NFL in 2011, removing one of the few tools players had to balance out the bargaining power with NFL Owners.</p>\n<p>In this Note, I document the development of the franchise tag and explain its functioning, and discuss the impact of Brady v. NFL on antitrust challenges to the CBA. I then suggest a different method players could employ—suing the NFL for franchise tag contracts as a form of economic duress. Alternatively, the NFL and the NFLPA could negotiate to remove the franchise tag or replace it with a less restrictive form, which would restore voluntariness in NFL contracts. I conclude with the contention that until the top players in the NFL can freely test the market, every player in the NFL will suffer from decreased competition, which drives down the overall player market value.</p>",
    "language": "eng",
    "license": {
        "name": "All rights reserved",
        "short_name": "Copyright",
        "text": "© the author(s). All rights reserved.",
        "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/authors"
    },
    "keywords": [],
    "section": "Article",
    "is_remote": true,
    "remote_url": "https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5jb1n5ss",
    "frozenauthors": [
        {
            "first_name": "Jon",
            "middle_name": "",
            "last_name": "Hancock",
            "name_suffix": "",
            "institution": "",
            "department": ""
        }
    ],
    "date_submitted": null,
    "date_accepted": null,
    "date_published": "2026-02-17T18:21:00-08:00",
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            "label": "PDF",
            "type": "pdf",
            "path": "https://journalpub.escholarship.org/uclalaw_elr/article/63020/galley/48676/download/"
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}