It's a free country, so they can always refuse. But once their team slaps an exclusive tag on them, they're locked into that team. They can not negotiate with any other club, because their team owns their rights.Originally Posted by Fritz
If they refuse, they have until July 15 to try to negotiate a better deal with their club. If they're unable to do that, then their next move is to refuse to report to training camp when it begins the following week. At this point, the team can begin to fine them for not reporting. The collective bargaining agreement sets the limits of the fines, but they are progressive and quickly escalate to $50K/day. Every day they sit out. In the past, teams could waive the fines once an agreement was reached, but I'm not sure if that's still the case. Someone else here is bound to know.
If it's an exclusive tag, the original team is the only club who has the right to negotiate with the player. If it's a non exclusive tag, another team can give the player an offer sheet which the first team has the right to match, but there's a risk to that. If the original team refuses to match it, the second team is obligated to sign the player, but they surrender 2 1st round draft choices for the player's rights. That's only happened a couple of times, because it's a hell of a risk. Which is the whole reason it's written in that way.
Also, at any point here, the team can trade the rights to the player who is sitting out. Doesn't happen often, but sometimes they decide they're just not going to meet in the middle no matter what and it's better to get the player off their books now and free up the cap space, because once that tag is applied the offered salary counts against the cap.
The player can hold out as long as Week 10 of the season, but once he hits Week 10 without signing a contract (either with his original team, or a team to which hsi rights may hav ebeen traded), he's done for the year. He's forfeited his rights to negotiate any contract with any team for the rest of the league year. I believe that last happened a few years ago with a Pittsburgh RB who was pissed because he was tagged 2 years in a row and felt that his window for making one last big payday was closig fast.
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