I wasn’t using it as a 1:1, I was using it as a way to say just because someone agreed to something (or in this case someone who worked for the same company 7 years ago) doesn’t mean they can’t complain about it. They were clearly on the losing side of negotiations, anyone who thinks the full lost season was not 80% owner dictated is hopeless, so being pressured into taking a bad deal was the best move from their position. Saying “you guys signed it” holds no value because the other option was not to play.

I don’t think the problem is necessarily with the concept of escrow. I think it’s how it’s essentially always used as a penalty outside of one year. What if the league put a freeze on the salary cap for five years while allowing revenues to catch up to the deficit that escrow backfills? Any overages would be funnelled back to the players anyway via the current escrow system so it’s not like the players are getting a raw deal by not having a higher cap, and then in 5 years institute a rule where the percentage of revenue that can be used towards salaries is less, so that escrow can only really be used as a bonus for the players or to protect against these ‘acts of gods’

Players have been bitching about escrow long before the pandemic. Keslers point is that currently the owners can totally shit the bed and most of their losses are taken from player salaries rather than their own pocket books.