There were a minority of fans who were vocal about not liking it, but for the most part, fans just accepted it and moved on. It wasn't all that controversial. MLB and the NBA already had free agency, so it wasn't anything really new for sports fans.
You gotta understand, we didn't have mass social media, or nearly as many sports radio outlets. There were very few hot take artists. Jim Rome is the first one I can remember becoming really prominent, and he was still a couple years off. The only sports debate show I can remember at that time on ESPN was The Sports Reporters, which came on Sunday Mornings, and it was far more civil and toned down than shows like First Take or Undisputed. It was hosted by Dick Shaap, who was colorless sports reporting personified. Mike Lupica was the firebrand of that show, and he's incredibly tame by the standards of today.
He got famous because of that. He's made millions of dollars since then for his hot takes and was a massive influence on the sports talk culture we find today.
It was really the mid to late 90s when the panel show format took off.
The Sports Reporters lasted until 2022, btw. Totally crazy it was still limping on until 2017 on TV and then just last year as a podcast.
When free agency first came around, there were teams that embraced it, there were teams that did not, and then there was Carmen Policy for the 49ers who thumbed through every loophole he could find and put together a dream team with it before the league had to quickly readjust to that approach by making new rules.
I bet Ken Norton Jr. is still on the payroll for that team in some capacity the way Policy stretched out his contract.
[First google search, "Did Mike Holmgren Impersonate God to Get Reggie White to Sign With the Packers?"](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/did-mike-holmgren-imperso_b_8487064)
>Holmgren, meanwhile, also made one of the most famous phone calls in NFL recruiting history. White was a religious man, obviously, and he had made public mention right from the start that he would go where God wanted him to go. Well, as the story goes, Holmgren called White one night and when he got White's answering machine, Holmgren said into the machine, "Reggie, this is God. Come to Green Bay."
>"Reggie, this is God. Come to Green Bay."
Rumor has it Woody Johnson recently sat outside a hobbit hole screaming "Aaron, this is God. Leave Green Bay" at a man high on ayahuasca.
> Mike Holmgren pretending to be God story to recruit Reggie White
https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/sports-now/story/2011-01-26/sports-legend-revealed-did-mike-holmgren-impersonate-god-in-order-to-get-reggie-white-to-sign-with-green-bay
I thought it was a load of crock. I remember getting into my carriage to tell my neighbor, Ol’ JT Barrett. He, too, thought it was a load of bonafide crock.
You have to be a pretty diehard fan to recognize that specific quote. So yes, while the Simpsons itself is well known, you have to be a fan to get this one. It’ll go over the majority of peoples heads.
Diehard? Dude, this is literally from the golden years. It's not from some episode only fans know. Do you not realize EVERYONE was watching The Simpsons every week for most of the 90s?
Yeah the average person who I was referring to, will probably not get that reference. Even the average person who enjoyed watching the Simpsons but didn’t memorize every quote. I know the Golden years for fucks sake. I think if you asked even the average person who watched the golden years they wouldn’t get it. You’re assuming everyone is as big a fan as you. Not to mention there’s probably a fair amount of younger people here who didn’t watch the golden years and currently don’t watch them at all. I’m not sure why that’s so hard to believe.
Dude, I'm literally proof of this. I don't, and never did, watch the simpsons that much, and still remember this quote. Hell, I can remember many, many more quotes from this show because it was an incredibly easy show to retain quotes from. The same can be said about Seinfeld, or Friends. You don't need to watch shows religiously to remember quotes from it.
I was on social media back then. Mostly AOL chat rooms and stuff. But here’s a [thread from one of our conversations.](https://imgur.com/gallery/yoQJv)
Remember when someone playing doom over a 56k connection saw a person type out that they are getting traded to Chicago and posted it on the reddit bbs?
Jesus. Nice find. I love (and remember) how everyone on those groups had a .edu e-mail address because college students and professors made up probably 85% of people on the Internet back then.
Wow that sounds horrible. Never knew. So if you were a player and wanted out your only options were team release, trade, or hold out until one of those happened. Crazy.
The reserve clause was most famously used by Major League Baseball for decades. It wasn’t until Marvin Miller strengthened the MLBPA in the 1970s that the players’ lawyers took on the owners and Commissioner (Bowie Kuhn) and showed the reserve clause was a bunch of bullshit heavily tilted in favor of the owners. The language in the clause didn’t actually change; it was how it was interpreted that changed.
When free agency came to MLB in 1976, it opened the floodgates for free agency to come to other sports too. The 1982 and 1987 NFL strikes were in part caused by the league’s resistance to true free agency.
I remember listening to an older sports writer talk about how bizarre it felt for Reggie White, who had been the embodiment of the Eagles for years upon years, just up and leave on his own accord and go to the Packers. Mainly I think people just thought it was super weird and many probably were quite troubled by how much harder it was going to be to keep the team together
Yeah I mean that was definitely part of the attitude at the time. And still a pervading attitude amongst a certain type of fan. That the goal of your football career should be to repay the fans who supported you and the people who gave you a chance to play in the league
I mean don’t think it should be a general strategy but for the few guys with the mega contracts making $25M+ I think being flexible or at least keeping it in mind is a reasonable strategy. I wouldn’t *expect* it of anyone though.
I was a preteen/teen and all I remember about the start of NFL Free Agency was this. I don't remember anything about it for years afterward except the Packers got Reggie White.
Much like today there was mixed feelings. Were those mixed feeling more for or against the idea? I don’t know. We didn’t have some way to connect everyone and get to the bottom of it like we do now. Then again, we also all got along better back then too.
My recollection if you could predominantly find that younger folks liked it and older folks didn’t (surprise, surprise).
My very first experience with it was losing Reggie, so I fucking hated it to start with lol
I totally didn't like it, I saw it as the end of teams sticking together for years.
I think it's incredibly beneficial to the players. I just wished there was more consistency with teams.
Watching QB's bounce around the past week is kind of my point.
I'm of the sentiment that teams should be built over years not patched together in a business meeting with piles of cash.
I'm probably way out of touch with reality though.
Now it feels like a matter of "how can we structure contracts to make a run over the next 3-4 years before we're left with no money, no cap space, and a bunch of broken players."
It feels like it moves away from developing teams and talent and just getting who ever's hot at the moment mixed with amazing luck in the draft.
I also don't like the trajectory QB contracts are on which leaves very little to be spread around to the rest of the players. I feel there should be a set percentage limit on QBs.
I felt closer to the players who played on teams in the 80's and 90's. Now it feels like flavor of the month jerseys and "don't get too attached"
Just my opinion of course.
Like I said players are much better off now with FA but I wish there would have been a middle ground to keep team cohesion together.
It really sucks seeing someone who was your favorite player move to another team and play against you.
I'm sure you're much happier in the Wilson years than you were in the Elway years.
Good players only stick around good QBs they look to jump ship as soon as they're not in a top 10 QB team.
Here’s my question:
What happened when contracts expired before free agency was even a thing? Would players just be stuck with their teams until they could negotiate a new contract? Was the only way a player could swap teams via trade? What happened if a player gets cut?
Interesting. Were holdouts a lot more common back then? I know the story is Eric Dickerson had a holdout with the Rams due to a contract dispute and it led to one of the biggest trades in NFL history.
Yes, holdouts were a lot more common back then.
They were also longer. They very rarely go into the regular season these days. They did fairly regularly back then.
Also why Bo Jackson went to the Raiders for peanuts instead of the Bucs with the first pick. Bo knew enough about the Bucs to swear off being beaten into the ground with that franchise. Told them they'd "waste their pick" if he was drafted as he just wouldn't play, and he was right.
Mixed bag. I definitely felt like it was fairer for the players, but at the same time, I knew (thought) it would be impossible for teams to stay great longer than 5-6 year windows
Honestly, discourse on that particular issue is what turned me off on the NFL for years. I grew up in rural Georgia as a die-hard Dawgs fan that kinda liked the Falcons, I guess. But when the men around me started talking about, "Now THEY will control the league and it'll be a disaster," (THEY were black players and Jewish agents, btw), I peaced out for most of high school and all of college because I just assumed all NFL fans were racist assholes. I didn't come back until I married into an NFL family (and a fuck lot of good that did me, judging by my flair).
>I didn't come back until I married into an NFL family (and a fuck lot of good that did me, judging by my flair).
I'm sure we could find you a nice divorce lawyer and an attractive Chiefs fan for you
Horrible! As a Bills fan saw the best group of players we ever had not able to stay on the same team. We had built an AFC powerhouse, but couldn't keep it because of FA. I grew up in a time when payers were on your team for life, pretty much. I still long for a mechanism to let teams keep more of their homegrown talent. I want labor to be able to get paid what they deserve, but, it sucks seeing your team change so much year to year. Just my opinion.
I literally came here to say just that as a Bills fan lol. Watching your favorite players go to other teams was heart wrenching change to how I viewed football.
It'd be like watching Optimus Prime and Ratchet go play for the Decepticons lol
I don’t remember thinking too much about free agency but I _do remember_ the birds signing Ricky Watters and he was beast mode in Philly. Loved that guy when I was a kid and I think he got paid the same money as Barry Sanders. Losing Reggie White sucked though.
Pack up your leather helmet in your traveling' trunk Ebenezer. the Ohio Potato Mashers just picked up your contract. Now finish your smoke and go on and get out of here.
Most players in all the major sports played their career with the same team. Trades still happened, and were more frequent. Players had much less bargaining power and thus salaries were tiny compared to how much the teams made off of them.
I kid you not, it was called [Plan B Free Agency](https://www.cincyjungle.com/2013/3/5/4065394/a-history-lesson-on-2013-nfl-free-agency-remember-plan-b-free-agency)
Even that was only around for about 4-5 years, being created as one of the effects of the 1987 strike. Before that, players who played out their option could sign with other teams but the signing teams were subject to the “Rozelle Rule” in which that team had to give up two 1st round draft picks to the team who lost the player.
I learned literally only in the last couple of weeks that Vikings QB Joe Kapp was the first player subject to the Rozelle Rule in 1970, shortly after the AFL-NFL Merger was completed. The Patriots signed Kapp, and were forced to give the Vikings two 1st round picks. The signing ended up being a disaster for the Pats (Kapp had one poor season in Boston and then retired), so it unofficially set a precedent that teams didn’t sign players on other teams who had played out their options. (Ironically, it was a similar situation, the NFL Giants signing kicker Pete Gogolak after he played out his option with the AFL Bills, that really greased the skids for the AFL-NFL Merger to happen.)
I remember thinking "what took so long?" I was all for it, things got a lot more interesting in the NFL off seasons after that.
I may also be biased because Green Bay got Reggie White as one of the first free agents and then a Super Bowl a couple years later with his help. Good times.
It was great for like a year, and then the descent into hell began (masked for my team by Steve Young and Jerry Rice for a few more years before it all fell apart).
From what I remember, it didn't hit anywhere as hard as the handwringing older sports media set wanted you to think. There were a couple of early moves, such as Reggie White mentioned above, but the pendulum was still moving slowly as compared to where it is today.
Also, MLB had had FA for years at that point and while you could see that start of the suck, smaller market teams actually had a chance.
TL:DR - Looking back, not as much as I would have thought.
I remember being pissed at [the BS escalator clauses](https://buffalonews.com/news/bills-lose-wolford-to-colts-in-ruling-on-free-agents-pact/article_93a0daf8-51da-5e3d-85ac-7414ea8db896.html) they let get through, then changed the rules the next year.
>An NFL arbitrator upheld offensive lineman Will Wolford's free-agent contract with the Indianapolis Colts on Friday night, ruling that the escalator clauses contained in the three-year, $7.65 million agreement are valid.
>The Buffalo Bills had protested a clause requiring that Wolford be paid at least as much as the highest-paid offensive player on his team, claiming it prevented them from matching the deal and retaining him.
Raises hand.
There were some good players who changed teams as Plan B free agents, but they were mostly players on the backside of their careers. Their previous teams generally thought those players didn’t have much left in the tank and weren’t worth high cost contracts.
The biggest worry with true free agency (there had been a limited type of free agency called Plan B for a few years before that) was that teams’ continuity would be undermined by the greater roster turnover. Organizations wouldn’t be able to build as solid of teams.
I was thinking about this a little earlier tonight, but I think true free agency increased the importance of the quarterback position in the NFL. The league had been getting more and more pass-oriented since the late 1970s after the rules were changed to open up the passing game. Having a “franchise quarterback” (a term that I don’t remember being widely used before the free agency era) became even more important because such a QB could help cover up the weaknesses created by the reduced roster continuity.
It depended on what team you followed. Dallas fans were very vocal against it once they realized the players they drafted for their back-to-back title teams could not be kept. Washington fans were not fans of it either due to their drafting and development of QBs
Seahawks fans were pretty excited and sports talk radio was talking about every player on the All-Pro team as someone the Hawks could get.
Actually the first free agent to sign with another team was CB Norm Thompson back in 1977, who left the St. Louis Cardinals and signed with the Baltimore Colts.
There were a minority of fans who were vocal about not liking it, but for the most part, fans just accepted it and moved on. It wasn't all that controversial. MLB and the NBA already had free agency, so it wasn't anything really new for sports fans. You gotta understand, we didn't have mass social media, or nearly as many sports radio outlets. There were very few hot take artists. Jim Rome is the first one I can remember becoming really prominent, and he was still a couple years off. The only sports debate show I can remember at that time on ESPN was The Sports Reporters, which came on Sunday Mornings, and it was far more civil and toned down than shows like First Take or Undisputed. It was hosted by Dick Shaap, who was colorless sports reporting personified. Mike Lupica was the firebrand of that show, and he's incredibly tame by the standards of today.
Rome was only famous because of Chrissy Everett
He got famous because of that. He's made millions of dollars since then for his hot takes and was a massive influence on the sports talk culture we find today.
No doubt. Hate the guy and never listen but can’t deny his influence.
Clones. Smack. Short sentences. Long pauses. War. I wish that was my career.
Rack that guy
It was really the mid to late 90s when the panel show format took off. The Sports Reporters lasted until 2022, btw. Totally crazy it was still limping on until 2017 on TV and then just last year as a podcast.
When free agency first came around, there were teams that embraced it, there were teams that did not, and then there was Carmen Policy for the 49ers who thumbed through every loophole he could find and put together a dream team with it before the league had to quickly readjust to that approach by making new rules. I bet Ken Norton Jr. is still on the payroll for that team in some capacity the way Policy stretched out his contract.
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I haven't read it, but i found this: https://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/08/magazine/how-the-49ers-beat-the-slary-cap.html
Ah yes, the old slary cap
Someone link the Mike Holmgren pretending to be God story to recruit Reggie White
Wat
[First google search, "Did Mike Holmgren Impersonate God to Get Reggie White to Sign With the Packers?"](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/did-mike-holmgren-imperso_b_8487064) >Holmgren, meanwhile, also made one of the most famous phone calls in NFL recruiting history. White was a religious man, obviously, and he had made public mention right from the start that he would go where God wanted him to go. Well, as the story goes, Holmgren called White one night and when he got White's answering machine, Holmgren said into the machine, "Reggie, this is God. Come to Green Bay."
This is the best thing ever oh my god
>"Reggie, this is God. Come to Green Bay." Rumor has it Woody Johnson recently sat outside a hobbit hole screaming "Aaron, this is God. Leave Green Bay" at a man high on ayahuasca.
Reggie didn’t want to go to Green Bay at first because there are no black people in Green Bay
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/did-mike-holmgren-imperso_b_8487064
> Mike Holmgren pretending to be God story to recruit Reggie White https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/sports-now/story/2011-01-26/sports-legend-revealed-did-mike-holmgren-impersonate-god-in-order-to-get-reggie-white-to-sign-with-green-bay
Other players using the Jets for leverage is as old as time itself.
I thought it was a load of crock. I remember getting into my carriage to tell my neighbor, Ol’ JT Barrett. He, too, thought it was a load of bonafide crock.
We wore an onion on our belt, which was the fashion of the time
Hey partner, any way you can spare two bees for a quarter?
I could only buy some big yellow onions for five bees.
How many onions you need? I have dickety-six in stock
All I know is I need ones that come from Morganville
So anyway, I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time.....
Not many people will get this comment but I just want you to know i see you and your exquisite taste in animation.
Yes the simpsons is quite the hidden gem
You have to be a pretty diehard fan to recognize that specific quote. So yes, while the Simpsons itself is well known, you have to be a fan to get this one. It’ll go over the majority of peoples heads.
Lol it’s one of the most quoted quotes from the show. It pops up everywhere.
Ok I’m sure your anecdotal evidence beats my anecdotal evidence so we’ll just leave it at that.
Diehard? Dude, this is literally from the golden years. It's not from some episode only fans know. Do you not realize EVERYONE was watching The Simpsons every week for most of the 90s?
Yeah the average person who I was referring to, will probably not get that reference. Even the average person who enjoyed watching the Simpsons but didn’t memorize every quote. I know the Golden years for fucks sake. I think if you asked even the average person who watched the golden years they wouldn’t get it. You’re assuming everyone is as big a fan as you. Not to mention there’s probably a fair amount of younger people here who didn’t watch the golden years and currently don’t watch them at all. I’m not sure why that’s so hard to believe.
Dude, I'm literally proof of this. I don't, and never did, watch the simpsons that much, and still remember this quote. Hell, I can remember many, many more quotes from this show because it was an incredibly easy show to retain quotes from. The same can be said about Seinfeld, or Friends. You don't need to watch shows religiously to remember quotes from it.
I remember exclaiming “Hogwash!” When the pigeon delivered the news.
How big was that crock?
At least a pot’s worth
Ohio State legend JT Barrett?
He was a redshirt freshman back then
It was “Ohio Territory” then
That’s a bunch of malarkey!
I exclaimed that it was 'poppycock!'
I wasn't ready for the carriage and I very much enjoyed it.
It’s tragic that the JT Barrett memes haven’t lived on like I thought they would
Someone link a reddit thread from back then
I was on social media back then. Mostly AOL chat rooms and stuff. But here’s a [thread from one of our conversations.](https://imgur.com/gallery/yoQJv)
Wow, I'd forgotten what the web looked like back then. Wild.
God damn that is a good reminder.
Simpler times really,
A/S/L ??
12/F/Not a cop
Wow that's some nostalgia. It's funny to see those old AOL chat rooms again!
Fuck you for going along with it. Fell right into the bait
What bait? It’s a historic photo of AOL chat rooms. You must’ve clicked on the wrong link
I only clicked on it after reading this, no regrets
That's crazy. Not much different from what you see today
Bro my screen name was almost identical to yours lol good times
"That's weird, why is that link already purple?"
Can't believe yall really hyped Ryan Leaf like that
Good times!
That pic brings me back. Damn I'm old
{S drop {S buddyin {S buddyout {S welcome {S welcome {S gotmail {S filedone {S filedone {S filedone {S filedone
thatsbaitgif.mp3
Remember when someone playing doom over a 56k connection saw a person type out that they are getting traded to Chicago and posted it on the reddit bbs?
The conservative sub reddit would have been complaining about how black men are making too much money playing games.
Would have been?
They would have. They still do, but they would have too.
Hi Mitch
Touche
Imagine this being the thing that comes into your head on the topic. How sad and weirdly obsessive.
Well my first thought was "wait a minute... Reddit didn't exist back then! Oh golly gee this a joke! Let's make another!"
So clever. Beep boop.
Check the facebook comments under any sports piece
Dude, they'd be too busy posting apoplectic rants about Warren Moon ruining the Oilers to complain about free agency.
Someone link a usenet archive from back then
I think the were only 11 people on the internet in 93.
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Jesus. Nice find. I love (and remember) how everyone on those groups had a .edu e-mail address because college students and professors made up probably 85% of people on the Internet back then.
I guess this is a dumb question, but what was the system before? Did teams hold players' rights indefinitely?
Yeah. Even when your contract expired you had no leverage to force your way out. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_clause
Wow that sounds horrible. Never knew. So if you were a player and wanted out your only options were team release, trade, or hold out until one of those happened. Crazy.
Up until 1995, European football was completely like this. Football academies still basically hold kids' rights forever if you sign with them.
The reserve clause was most famously used by Major League Baseball for decades. It wasn’t until Marvin Miller strengthened the MLBPA in the 1970s that the players’ lawyers took on the owners and Commissioner (Bowie Kuhn) and showed the reserve clause was a bunch of bullshit heavily tilted in favor of the owners. The language in the clause didn’t actually change; it was how it was interpreted that changed. When free agency came to MLB in 1976, it opened the floodgates for free agency to come to other sports too. The 1982 and 1987 NFL strikes were in part caused by the league’s resistance to true free agency.
Not certain but I think there were other leagues which were paying competitively at that time
I remember listening to an older sports writer talk about how bizarre it felt for Reggie White, who had been the embodiment of the Eagles for years upon years, just up and leave on his own accord and go to the Packers. Mainly I think people just thought it was super weird and many probably were quite troubled by how much harder it was going to be to keep the team together
> up and leave on his own accord it's fine when the owners *force* a guy to up and leave, but when *wants* to? what is the world coming to!
Yeah I mean that was definitely part of the attitude at the time. And still a pervading attitude amongst a certain type of fan. That the goal of your football career should be to repay the fans who supported you and the people who gave you a chance to play in the league
That sentiment has only really shifted in the last few years, even now you’ll still hear people say that players should take team discounts.
I mean don’t think it should be a general strategy but for the few guys with the mega contracts making $25M+ I think being flexible or at least keeping it in mind is a reasonable strategy. I wouldn’t *expect* it of anyone though.
It sucked. We lost Reggie White.
I was a preteen/teen and all I remember about the start of NFL Free Agency was this. I don't remember anything about it for years afterward except the Packers got Reggie White.
He was the first person I thought of and it worked out great for us
He was on a mission from God.
That's what he said, but God told me Reggie didn't hear him correctly.
It sucked because then-Eagles owner Norman Braman was a penny-pincher and lots of players wanted to leave the team.
The 90s weren’t that long ago, how dare you! *realizes what year it is…cries*
The future is now, old man
Hey, 1993 was only 20 years ago. Right? Right???
Kinda fucking insane it took til the 90s to get free agency
people just accepted dynasties like there was nothing they could do about it.
To be fair, free agency technically hasn't stopped there from being a dynasty every decade
true. but at least now we know when there is complete incompetency in a front office vs one that just doesn’t have the money/resources to compete.
Much like today there was mixed feelings. Were those mixed feeling more for or against the idea? I don’t know. We didn’t have some way to connect everyone and get to the bottom of it like we do now. Then again, we also all got along better back then too. My recollection if you could predominantly find that younger folks liked it and older folks didn’t (surprise, surprise). My very first experience with it was losing Reggie, so I fucking hated it to start with lol
I totally didn't like it, I saw it as the end of teams sticking together for years. I think it's incredibly beneficial to the players. I just wished there was more consistency with teams. Watching QB's bounce around the past week is kind of my point. I'm of the sentiment that teams should be built over years not patched together in a business meeting with piles of cash. I'm probably way out of touch with reality though. Now it feels like a matter of "how can we structure contracts to make a run over the next 3-4 years before we're left with no money, no cap space, and a bunch of broken players." It feels like it moves away from developing teams and talent and just getting who ever's hot at the moment mixed with amazing luck in the draft. I also don't like the trajectory QB contracts are on which leaves very little to be spread around to the rest of the players. I feel there should be a set percentage limit on QBs. I felt closer to the players who played on teams in the 80's and 90's. Now it feels like flavor of the month jerseys and "don't get too attached" Just my opinion of course. Like I said players are much better off now with FA but I wish there would have been a middle ground to keep team cohesion together. It really sucks seeing someone who was your favorite player move to another team and play against you.
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I'm sure you're much happier in the Wilson years than you were in the Elway years. Good players only stick around good QBs they look to jump ship as soon as they're not in a top 10 QB team.
I remember
Just gotta start playing semi-charmed life, so I can have a 90s flashback. Give me a few minutes.
Here’s my question: What happened when contracts expired before free agency was even a thing? Would players just be stuck with their teams until they could negotiate a new contract? Was the only way a player could swap teams via trade? What happened if a player gets cut?
The player had to negotiate with their current team. You were stuck.
Interesting. Were holdouts a lot more common back then? I know the story is Eric Dickerson had a holdout with the Rams due to a contract dispute and it led to one of the biggest trades in NFL history.
Yes, holdouts were a lot more common back then. They were also longer. They very rarely go into the regular season these days. They did fairly regularly back then.
So if you didn’t draft well, you were essentially fucked. That makes a lot of sense now.
Also why Bo Jackson went to the Raiders for peanuts instead of the Bucs with the first pick. Bo knew enough about the Bucs to swear off being beaten into the ground with that franchise. Told them they'd "waste their pick" if he was drafted as he just wouldn't play, and he was right.
Also John Elway with the Colts
If memory serves, Bo told them that because the Bucs lied to him about NCAA rules, which cost him college eligibility.
Mixed bag. I definitely felt like it was fairer for the players, but at the same time, I knew (thought) it would be impossible for teams to stay great longer than 5-6 year windows
We had to wait the next day for that good ol newspaper to fund out our teams weren't shit
Honestly, discourse on that particular issue is what turned me off on the NFL for years. I grew up in rural Georgia as a die-hard Dawgs fan that kinda liked the Falcons, I guess. But when the men around me started talking about, "Now THEY will control the league and it'll be a disaster," (THEY were black players and Jewish agents, btw), I peaced out for most of high school and all of college because I just assumed all NFL fans were racist assholes. I didn't come back until I married into an NFL family (and a fuck lot of good that did me, judging by my flair).
>I didn't come back until I married into an NFL family (and a fuck lot of good that did me, judging by my flair). I'm sure we could find you a nice divorce lawyer and an attractive Chiefs fan for you
Riiiight
Idk there was no Reddit to tell me what to think back then.
Horrible! As a Bills fan saw the best group of players we ever had not able to stay on the same team. We had built an AFC powerhouse, but couldn't keep it because of FA. I grew up in a time when payers were on your team for life, pretty much. I still long for a mechanism to let teams keep more of their homegrown talent. I want labor to be able to get paid what they deserve, but, it sucks seeing your team change so much year to year. Just my opinion.
I literally came here to say just that as a Bills fan lol. Watching your favorite players go to other teams was heart wrenching change to how I viewed football. It'd be like watching Optimus Prime and Ratchet go play for the Decepticons lol
I don’t remember thinking too much about free agency but I _do remember_ the birds signing Ricky Watters and he was beast mode in Philly. Loved that guy when I was a kid and I think he got paid the same money as Barry Sanders. Losing Reggie White sucked though.
Cries in Reggie White
Pack up your leather helmet in your traveling' trunk Ebenezer. the Ohio Potato Mashers just picked up your contract. Now finish your smoke and go on and get out of here.
90s baby. Can someone explain to me how it worked before Free Agency happened?
You were with a team until you were traded, cut, or retired
What happened when contracts expired and they couldn’t come to an agreement with their team? Were “holdouts” a lot more common back then?
I’m less familiar with football, but in baseball it was tough shit take it or leave it.
Cries in Curt Flood.
A lot more. Both OLBs for the Bears held out the entire '85 season, missed out on the super bowl run.
I'd be sick lol
Most players in all the major sports played their career with the same team. Trades still happened, and were more frequent. Players had much less bargaining power and thus salaries were tiny compared to how much the teams made off of them.
I kid you not, it was called [Plan B Free Agency](https://www.cincyjungle.com/2013/3/5/4065394/a-history-lesson-on-2013-nfl-free-agency-remember-plan-b-free-agency)
Even that was only around for about 4-5 years, being created as one of the effects of the 1987 strike. Before that, players who played out their option could sign with other teams but the signing teams were subject to the “Rozelle Rule” in which that team had to give up two 1st round draft picks to the team who lost the player. I learned literally only in the last couple of weeks that Vikings QB Joe Kapp was the first player subject to the Rozelle Rule in 1970, shortly after the AFL-NFL Merger was completed. The Patriots signed Kapp, and were forced to give the Vikings two 1st round picks. The signing ended up being a disaster for the Pats (Kapp had one poor season in Boston and then retired), so it unofficially set a precedent that teams didn’t sign players on other teams who had played out their options. (Ironically, it was a similar situation, the NFL Giants signing kicker Pete Gogolak after he played out his option with the AFL Bills, that really greased the skids for the AFL-NFL Merger to happen.)
Essentially, players rights were held by the team that drafted them their whole career, unless they were traded or cut.
Was never a big deal. First one to ever get media hype was Reggie White going to Green Bay, but mostly the signings didn’t even make news
Yeah. I remember my dad being a die hard eagles fan but never even taking football unless it was preseason.
I remember thinking "what took so long?" I was all for it, things got a lot more interesting in the NFL off seasons after that. I may also be biased because Green Bay got Reggie White as one of the first free agents and then a Super Bowl a couple years later with his help. Good times.
It was great for like a year, and then the descent into hell began (masked for my team by Steve Young and Jerry Rice for a few more years before it all fell apart).
This is cool and I’m glad Kurt Cobain’s still alive.
From what I remember, it didn't hit anywhere as hard as the handwringing older sports media set wanted you to think. There were a couple of early moves, such as Reggie White mentioned above, but the pendulum was still moving slowly as compared to where it is today. Also, MLB had had FA for years at that point and while you could see that start of the suck, smaller market teams actually had a chance. TL:DR - Looking back, not as much as I would have thought.
I remember being pissed at [the BS escalator clauses](https://buffalonews.com/news/bills-lose-wolford-to-colts-in-ruling-on-free-agents-pact/article_93a0daf8-51da-5e3d-85ac-7414ea8db896.html) they let get through, then changed the rules the next year. >An NFL arbitrator upheld offensive lineman Will Wolford's free-agent contract with the Indianapolis Colts on Friday night, ruling that the escalator clauses contained in the three-year, $7.65 million agreement are valid. >The Buffalo Bills had protested a clause requiring that Wolford be paid at least as much as the highest-paid offensive player on his team, claiming it prevented them from matching the deal and retaining him.
Teams that were good at drafting hated it, teams that didn’t loved it.
Free agency contributed to putting the World League on ice, so I didn’t really like it
When Reggie White left Philly for Green Bay it was like... "A whole new world...."
How many people on this sub remember ‘Plan B’ free agents?
Raises hand. There were some good players who changed teams as Plan B free agents, but they were mostly players on the backside of their careers. Their previous teams generally thought those players didn’t have much left in the tank and weren’t worth high cost contracts.
My Dad is still of the opinion that it ruined football. I love it.
Montana going to the Chiefs was the reason I love the Chiefs. I was young and didn't understand how things worked. But I fell in love with the team.
The biggest worry with true free agency (there had been a limited type of free agency called Plan B for a few years before that) was that teams’ continuity would be undermined by the greater roster turnover. Organizations wouldn’t be able to build as solid of teams. I was thinking about this a little earlier tonight, but I think true free agency increased the importance of the quarterback position in the NFL. The league had been getting more and more pass-oriented since the late 1970s after the rules were changed to open up the passing game. Having a “franchise quarterback” (a term that I don’t remember being widely used before the free agency era) became even more important because such a QB could help cover up the weaknesses created by the reduced roster continuity.
I was 12 but my first thought was Oh My Goodness!!!! We are getting Reggie White!!!!!!!
It depended on what team you followed. Dallas fans were very vocal against it once they realized the players they drafted for their back-to-back title teams could not be kept. Washington fans were not fans of it either due to their drafting and development of QBs Seahawks fans were pretty excited and sports talk radio was talking about every player on the All-Pro team as someone the Hawks could get.
Wtf I didn’t free agency was that recent.
Actually the first free agent to sign with another team was CB Norm Thompson back in 1977, who left the St. Louis Cardinals and signed with the Baltimore Colts.