From R.C. Owens to Reggie White, the evolution of NFL free agency – Canton Repository

Stories from the Hall of Fame Archive: A look at how the active free-agent process we see today gradually came to be in the NFL.

The National Football League kicked off its new league year on Wednesday and with it came the beginning of the free agency period. Players from around the league, whose contracts have expired, became eligible to sign with any team wanting to acquire their services.

This wasnt always the way the NFL conducted business. From 1920 to 1946, the league utilized the reserve rule. This allowed teams the right to resign a player in perpetuity. Players could not move to another team by choice and had only three options: play for the same team, get traded or retire.

The NFL replaced the reserve rule with the one-year option rule in 1947. Teams only had the right to use the reserve clause once after the expiration of a players contract. This gave players the ability to negotiate and enter into a contract with another team after their option year was fulfilled. It took 16 years before a player exercised the rule to change teams. Wide receiver R.C. Owens signed with the Baltimore Colts in 1961 after playing out his option year with the San Francisco 49ers.

Owens move to the Colts prompted the NFL to create the Rozelle Rule in 1963. Named after NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle, the rule stipulated that whenever a team lost a free agent, his former team would receive compensation from the team signing that free agent. It essentially worked similar to a trade. If the teams could not agree to terms, Rozelle had final authority on what compensation would be delivered. Only 34 players signed with new teams from 1963-1974 as most teams found it easier to just not sign free agents.

In 1976, the NFL players union won a court decision in John Mackey v. NFL that found the Rozelle Rule to be an unfair restraint of trade. The settlement added structure to the Rozelle Rule and a new form of free agency was created. The new rule was known as The Right of First Refusal and Compensation which was used by the NFL from 1977-1988.

This rule gave a free agents original team the right of first refusal, enabling it to retain its player by matching any contract offer by another team. The original team was also entitled to draft choice compensation from the team signing its player based on a players NFL experience and his new salary.

In 1989, the players union sued the league again. The NFL would adopt the Plan B Free Agency system. Teams could now protect 37 players on their roster, and the remaining players became unrestricted free agents. A protected player was unable to sign with another team without giving his original team the first chance to sign him. Linebacker Wilber Marshall, who jumped from the Chicago to Washington, was the only protected player to change teams while this system was in place.

Following more lawsuits from individual players, a federal jury in Minnesota ruled that Plan B was illegal and in 1992, Philadelphia Eagles tight end Keith Jackson, New England Patriots defensive end Garin Veris, Cleveland Browns wide receiver Webster Slaughter, and Detroit Lions running back D.J. Dozier were granted temporary unrestricted free agency for five days. All of them would go on to sign with new teams except for Dozier who remained unsigned.

Then, in 1993, during collective bargaining between the League and the NFL Players Association, the owners granted players Unrestricted Free Agency in exchange for a salary cap (which was set at $34.6 million). The Reggie White Settlement allowed any veteran with at least five years of experience to become an unrestricted free agent. It did allow teams to designate a Franchise player and a Transition player which restricted their market. Under this structure, teams also retained exclusive negotiating rights to players with fewer than three years of experience.

White earned the nickname "The Minister of Defense" as a senior at Tennessee. The moniker surely had to do with something more than the fact that he became an ordained minister at the age of 17. That became instantly apparent when he began his pro football career.

He became the most significant free agent signing in NFL history when the new system went into effect during the 1993 offseason. White chose Green Bay in a shocker that shifted the balance of power in the NFL and foretold free agency's boom and boon. White teamed with future Hall of Famer Brett Favre to lead the Packers' resurgence that ended a 30-year title drought.

In a countdown to the NFLs Centennial celebration on Sept. 17, 2020, Director of Archives and Football Information at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Jon Kendle shares unique and interesting stories starting from the leagues founding in downtown Canton to the present day.

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From R.C. Owens to Reggie White, the evolution of NFL free agency - Canton Repository