Business contract with defined penalties for failure to perform. Word and honor have nothing to do with it.
The Cowboys, and fans, have been open about wanting to chew Zeke up and spit him out. Throw his broken body on the ash heap of history after we've squeezed all the production we can out of it, and glibly move on, whistling a merry tune. That's our attitude toward RBs. They're consumables.
We use RBs. It should come as no surprise that RBs show more interest toward their own self interest than good faith performance to the interest of the contract's counterparty planning to chew them up and spit them out. Good faith performance goes both ways, or not at all.
Zeke has a point with his union of RBs. The NFL's relationship with its RBs is toxic. The CBA is typical union stuff, benefiting existing hires over new hires. You "pay your dues" on a rookie contract before you become a vested vet eligible for free agent money, able to feed off the value of the next generation of new hires.
But in the case of RBs, the deal is broken. "Chew em up on their rookie contracts, leaving little for free agency" is the open and explicit strategy with RBs now. All other players are just entering their prime play years after their rookie contracts, but RBs are largely spent. The CBA is a bad deal for RBs.
And it's the Cowboys who made the RB as consumable strategy open with Murray. They didn't hide it. They proudly came out and said it, patting themselves on the back for how clever they are. *We* don't hide it as Cowboy fans. Chew him up, spit him out. We're so clever!
RBs and their agents see this, and are fighting back. Action. Reaction. Bell. Gurley. Now Zeke.
They are the sticks that stir the drink, but the CBA is designed to screw them relative to other players. It's rather entitled of fans and the league to expect them to be loyal soldiers to *our* interests as we throw them out on the minefields to clear the way for profit and fun for everyone else.
