From Chattel to Employee: The Athlete's Quest for Freedom and Dignity

• Published date: 01 September 1979
• Date: 01 September 1979
• Author: Edward R. Garvey
• DOI: 10.1177/000271627944500111
• Subject Matter: Articles

From Chattel to Employee: The Athlete’s Quest for
Freedom and Dignity
By EDWARD R. GARVEY
ABSTRACT: Sports owners in America have always played
by different rules than other corporate entities. Team owners
are given tax breaks that are the envy of other businessmen;
baseball owners have divided up the country among them-
selves, giving exclusive franchises to each other, and yet the
U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that such practices are exempt
from federal antitrust laws. Football, hockey, basketball,
baseball, and soccer owners operated a reserve system that
divided up player talent in the same way they divided the
country into exclusive franchises. When the NFL
asked for an
exemption from antitrust laws which would allow the clubs to
pool their television rights, the Congress gave it to them. That
exemption allowed the club owners to bargain collectively
with the networks, control the announcers, and kill off future
competitors. In 1966, Congress acted again to help the NFL,
providing another exemption from the antitrust laws for the
merger of the American Football League and the NFL. The
professional athlete has had no choice but to accept the system
imposed by management. However, the courts have started to
change and athletes now have unions to help them gain dig-
nity and freedom from the reserve system. Whether the ath-
letes will continue to make progress in the 1980s is the pri-
mary question posed in this article.
Edward R. Garvey was labor counsel to the NFL Players Association and was
elected Executive Director of the NFLPA in 1971. He helped to organize the North
American Soccer League Players Association, the Major Indoor Soccer League
Players Association, and an umbrella group for all athletes called Professional
Athletes International.
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THE history of professional team the courts, or the Congress. Wealthy
-L sports in the United States is
owners of club franchises in base-
a story of exploitation of gifted
ball, football, basketball, soccer, and
athletes by a few wealthy people
hockey imposed this system upon
who call themselves &dquo;owners.&dquo; For
their employees. Because the sports
over a century they have considered
leagues monopolized their particu-
the employee-athletes &dquo;chattel&dquo; to
lar sport, anyone who disagreed with
be owned, sold, traded, suspended,
the system had only two choices, ac-
or fired at their whim. Only in recent
cept it or not practice his profession.
years have some owners been forced
to refer to their &dquo;chattel&dquo; as &dquo;em-
The draft: entry into the league
ployees&dquo; and themselves as &dquo;em-
The first
ployers.&dquo; The
element of the reserve
reason these wealthy
system is called the draft. The draft
men considered their employees to
be
determines where the
possessions or property can be
very best ath-
understood
letes will be allowed
through
to try out for a
an examination
of the
position with a team. Average or
reserve system. The reserve
even above
system in team sports allowed
average athletes at the
high school or college level need not
owners to treat athletes as property
because it
apply to play professionally. You
gave the owners complete
control
must be one of the truly extraor-
over the athlete’s , profes-
sional life from
dinary athletes in the
entry to exit. The
country to have
a chance to make it. Of thousands
reserve systems has best been de-
scribed
of graduating senior athletes each
as a web of
restrictive meas-
year, only about 300 will make the
ures designed to deny to the athlete
grade in the NFL, 50 in the NBA, a
any voice in naming his employer at
few more in baseball. The odds are
any time in his professional career.
When
against the hopeful applicant any-
a person is given but one
choice of where and for whom
he will
way but the reserve system will
make the odds
work, he is not in
against making it
a good position to
make demands,
even greater.
argue about working
The NFL draft is the most
conditions,
pub-
receive a fair salary. The
licized in team sports and it best
reserve system is designed to hold
demonstrates the first
salaries down, stifle dissent, and al-
phase of the
low the
system. In May, the 28 NFL club
owner to dictate lifestyle if
he
owners and their Commissioner
so desires. It is a system, indeed
meet at the Waldorf Astoria in New
an American phenomenon, that
York
should be understood
to &dquo;conduct the
by fan and
college draft.&dquo;
Translated
nonfan alike.
that means the teams will
divide among themselves all the
best available football talent in the
ELEMENTS OF RESERVE SYSTEM
country. The teams take turns select-
The reserve system consists of five
ing until the best players in the coun-
basic elements: the selection of
players, the retention of the players
1. Like all other elements of the reserve
by the team, discipline and control
system, there are some modifications of the.
of the athletes, resolution of dis-
draft resulting from court decisions and col-
lective bargaining, but the reserve system
putes, and the ability to sell or trade
will be described as it existed in the NFL
the athlete. The system was created
as late as 1977 and in the NASL as it is
by management, not by players,
in 1979.

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93
try have been assigned to one team
ing this enormous power in the Com-
in the League. Once a player is as-
missioner is to protect every aspect
signed to a team, the other 27 teams
of the reserve system. The system
agree not to select that player, talk
that will govern the new employee’s
to him, or hire him. Thus he must
career is carefully placed in the
go to work for the team selecting him
standard form. A star athlete might
in the draft whether he likes that
exact changes in the system from a
team or not.
weak owner; therefore, the Commis-
If the athlete grew up in Wiscon-
sioner must approve changes to pro-
sin, he may have a strong desire to
tect the &dquo;system&dquo; from a weak owner
stay in the state and work for the
granting concessions to the athlete.
Green Bay Packers. If he went to
The heart of the reserve system is
UCLA he may have emotional or
found in the Standard Player Con-
financial reasons to perform for the
tract. Every player must sign the
L.A. Rams. If he is a defensive back
printed form. If he won’t sign the
he may have looked over the defen-
contract he will not be allowed to
sive backs on all NFL
teams to deter-
work in the League. Joe Kapp had a
mine where he would have the best
signed contract with the New Eng-
chance of making a team. None of
land Patriots but it was not the
this matters. The athlete has no
printed form and when he refused to
choice of teams. He is not consulted
sign the standard contract Commis-
and his views are completely unim-
sioner Rozelle forced him out of the
portant to the owners. The system
League.2 No other players have been
will decide where he will have to try
able to sign a contract other than the
to make the grade professionally.
printed standard form.
Naturally, the standard contract
The standard form contract
favors management since it was
drafted by League attorneys to pro-
The television sportscasters and
tect the reserve system. Typically,
the sportswriters herald news of the
the contract can be terminated at any
draft. The athlete does not hear from
time by the club but the athlete can
his new employer, he learns on the
never cancel the contract in order to
radio or from the local sportswriter
try out for another team.3 Not allow-
where he will go to work. The team
ing an athlete the right to resign and
is in no hurry to contact him be-
go to work for another team is an im-
cause the boycott by all other NFL
portant element of the reserve sys-
teams leaves him no choice anyway.
tem. Because a player cannot quit
When the athlete reports to the
but can be suspended without pay
club which chose him, the general
...