When the Steelers placed the franchise tag on LaMarr Woodley last week many in the press wrote it off as an academic move.

After all, the current CBA between the NFL owners and the NFL Players Association expires on March 4th and everyone fully expects a protracted lock out. If there is no franchise player provision in the next CBA, then the Steelers move would mean nothing.

Woodley, however, signed the tender, binding him to the team for the coming year and assuring him a salary of 10 million dollars.

Although a signed tender is tantamount to a contract, Ed Bouchette cautioned readers on PG Plus that any new CBA might void any signed tenders. In a legal sense it is kind of difficult to see how that could really happen, but courts generally respect the terms of collective bargaining agreements.

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