Foster’s call to action is unusual because the N.F.L.’s current labor deal does not expire until 2021. But players said they were so alarmed by a string of suspensions they considered unreasonable, and the legal victories the league had won to uphold those decisions, that they needed to muster for action now.

Their focus is the N.F.L.’s personal conduct policy, which Goodell has used to penalize players for transgressions as varied as aggressive hits on quarterbacks, bullying teammates, domestic abuse and scheming to deflate footballs.

Goodell, with an approach far more aggressive than that of his predecessor, Paul Tagliabue, has gotten as much attention in his first decade as commissioner for these punishments as for turning the league, which oversees America’s most popular sport, into a $13 billion behemoth.

Few players would dispute that someone who commits domestic violence should be penalized. But Goodell’s suspension of players for more ambiguous infractions like deflating footballs or taunting teammates has led many fans, and some players, to complain that he is meddlesome and affecting the quality of play by sidelining some of the game’s top stars.

Players also want a neutral arbitrator, not Goodell, to hear their appeals.

“We don’t want it to just be that you say this is what it is and we don’t get a chance to negotiate anything,” said Mark Herzlich, a linebacker for the Giants and a member of the union’s executive committee. “What we want is fairness.”

The season begins in Denver on Thursday night, with a rematch of last season’s Super Bowl between the Broncos and the Carolina Panthers. But on Sunday, when most games will be played, Tom Brady, the New England Patriots quarterback and one of the league’s best players, will be conspicuously absent.