The NFL Players Association has said that it will attempt to block any efforts by the NFL to lower debt and limits on the amount teams can borrow citing the NFL’s unwillingness to open their books to allow full-disclosure on each franchise’s finances.

In the NFLPA’s weekly message for Nov. 24, the union for the players said:

We recently heard that the NFL again has concerns about its credit lines with financial institutions, and it is again considering limits on club debt. This is a concern to our union, since club debt limits can have an obvious effect on negotiation of player contracts. If a player’s goal is to get a large signing bonus in a new contract, as most free agents have done, his agent’s job is harder if the cash available to the club is limited by league-imposed debt ceilings. That is why the NFLPA has legally challenged debt limits in the past and will do so again if the league moves forward on this. Players may hear clubs say that player salaries are too high and there needs to be changes in the CBA to give financial relief to the owners. But meanwhile, they are not willing to open their books to show their true financial situations. We can therefore assume that their $25 million average annual profit per club is not in jeopardy, and there is no need to be concerned about club debt.  

The comments from the NFLPA come after Commissioner Goodell talked of lowering debt. Speaking to Tim Lemke of the Washington Times, Goodell brought up how the credit climate is a cause for concern with the owners.

"We are obviously concerned about the debt that we have," he said. "One of the things we've been looking at over the last year is how to do we manage the debt we have, how do we effectively manage it down, and the markets have only made that more difficult. The rates associated with that debt continue to go up, so costs continue to rise. When you look at that, and the pressure on revenues, that something all of us have to deal with. That's why we're taking a good hard look at the debt that we have and the costs that we have so we can continue to operate our business effectively."

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