Completely false.
Article 48, Section 2 of the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement provides:
“The Commissioner shall disapprove any NFL Player Contract(s) between a player and a Club unless such player: (a) is represented in the negotiations with respect to such NFL Player Contract(s) by an agent or representative duly certified by the NFLPA in accordance with the NFLPA agent regulation system and authorized to represent him; or (b) acts on his own behalf in negotiating such NFL Player Contract(s).”
The purpose of Article 48, which deals with certified agents, is clear. Its ensures that if someone other than the player is involved in negotiations, that person must be a certified NFLPA agent. It was drafted to prevent teams from having to negotiate with players’ brothers, uncles, or friends who were not qualified. But nothing in Article 48 restricts a player from acting on his own behalf just because he has an agent. Subsection (b) explicitly confirms that a player always has the right to negotiate directly if he chooses.
That is exactly what Micah did in his conversations with Jerry. He acted on his own behalf without his agent. And that conduct is fully consistent with the CBA. In fact, it’s been common practice around the league for years: players often handle initial discussions themselves and then let their agents step in to review or finalize the contract. Jerry and Bill Parcells did it with Tony Romo, and the Patriots were well known for negotiating directly with players before bringing in the agents to formalize the deal.
I reviewed the CBA, and Article 48 is the only provision that comes close to addressing your assertion. And nowhere in it does it say what you’re claiming, i.e., that all negotiations must go through the agent if the player has one. On the contrary, it says the exact opposite: a player can always negotiate on his own behalf.
So I’ll ask again: where in the CBA does it say that a player who has an agent is prohibited from negotiating for himself directly with the GM? Because the language of Article 48 doesn’t come anywhere close to saying that.
