Labor Talks Bog Down Again
Wednesday March 1, 2006
Literally hours before the start of free agency, the NFL has acknowledged that labor talks have stalled, leaving players and teams in limbo regarding upcoming contract negotiations.
The free-agent signing period is quickly approaching, and it had appeared the two sides were making progress over the weekend. But Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Association, emerged from three days of meetings with NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue sounding as pessimistic as ever.
"We met today and there's no deal and we're deadlocked," Upshaw told ESPN's Chris Mortensen. "We were supposed to stick around and meet tomorrow, but that's not gonna happen. That's it. I'm headed back to Washington."
Mike Florio of Profootballtalk.com, however, reports that the NFLPA and the league are actually very close to an agreement. But negotiations between the owners themselves regarding the proposed expansion of revenue sharing could cause the deal to fall apart.
The problem is, the new CBA is rumored to base the salary cap on all football revenue. So the small-market teams feel that unless all football revenue is included in the revenue-sharing agreement, they will see their individual cap numbers influenced by the bigger money being pulled in by other teams. Owners of the higher-earning teams, of course, don't want to share income that previously was not included in the revenue-sharing plan.
If a new agreement is not reached soon, free-agent negotiations will commence under the assumption that 2007 will be an uncapped season and the players face a possible lockout in 2008.
The free-agent signing period is quickly approaching, and it had appeared the two sides were making progress over the weekend. But Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Association, emerged from three days of meetings with NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue sounding as pessimistic as ever.
"We met today and there's no deal and we're deadlocked," Upshaw told ESPN's Chris Mortensen. "We were supposed to stick around and meet tomorrow, but that's not gonna happen. That's it. I'm headed back to Washington."
Mike Florio of Profootballtalk.com, however, reports that the NFLPA and the league are actually very close to an agreement. But negotiations between the owners themselves regarding the proposed expansion of revenue sharing could cause the deal to fall apart.
The problem is, the new CBA is rumored to base the salary cap on all football revenue. So the small-market teams feel that unless all football revenue is included in the revenue-sharing agreement, they will see their individual cap numbers influenced by the bigger money being pulled in by other teams. Owners of the higher-earning teams, of course, don't want to share income that previously was not included in the revenue-sharing plan.
If a new agreement is not reached soon, free-agent negotiations will commence under the assumption that 2007 will be an uncapped season and the players face a possible lockout in 2008.
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