NFL labour talks showing no progress?

March 5, 2006
N.F.L. and Players Union Revive Their Negotiations

By JUDY BATTISTA
Representatives for National Football League owners and the players union revived their negotiations today with renewed hope that an extension of the collective bargaining agreement is within reach.

The chances for a deal appeared bleak when talks broke off Saturday afternoon and union officials headed home to Washington. But the head of the union, Gene Upshaw, told ESPN this morning that the two sides communicated by e-mail on Saturday night and that he was headed back to New York to resume talks.

Last Thursday, the two sides agreed to push back the waiver deadline until 6 p.m. today, but if a deal is close, it is likely that the deadline will again be postponed.

The league would have to inform teams of a new salary cap figure — it is currently set at $94.5 million — before the start of free agency, which is now scheduled to start on Monday. A new deal would mean that the salary cap would jump by an estimated $10 million and that teams would need additional time to make roster decisions. It would likely avert what was expected to be a deluge of cuts of high-priced veteran players if an extension was not reached.

The union had been seeking 60 percent of total football revenue for players, but owners were offering about 56 percent. Both sides are thought to have moved slightly off those figures to bring a deal closer.

The sides were also discussing ways to narrow the gap between high-revenue teams and lower-revenue teams. A new deal is likely to include provisions to limit the spending of money over the salary cap — called "cash over cap" — which provides a significant advantage to teams that have more cash to lavish on players in the form of signing bonuses that, under salary cap accounting rules, is spread out over years of a contract.

the bear - 2006-03-05 4:35 AM Just the ongoing soap opera entitled "When Millionaires Can't Get Along." Fans, of course, are the only ones who stand a chance of losing anything.

oneword - 2006-03-06 4:44 PM What bugs me more than player strikes in pro athletics is when public dollars are used to pay for the pro stadiums (as well as in big-time college athletics). This is something that private dollars should be covering.