Team owners break off talks with players union

By Larry Fine

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Negotiations to extend the NFL’s labor
agreement with the players union broke down on Thursday,
setting the stage for a cull of high-priced veterans as many
teams are to forced cut up to $10 million in salaries.

“The situation is about as dire as dire can be,” NFL
commissioner Paul Tagliabue told a news conference after the
owners voted unanimously to reject the latest player proposals
for a contract extension.

Hours after walking away from the table, the NFL said in a
statement it was pushing back the start of free-agency signing
by three days “to provide time to resume negotiations.”

The salary purge, which was supposed to be unleashed by a
Thursday midnight deadline, was thus delayed by 72 hours as the
NFL extended its deadline to 12:01 a.m. (EST) on Monday.

Tagliabue would not confirm media reports that the players
were asking that salary caps be based on 60 percent of the
league’s total revenue rather than 56 percent.

“The players association has on the table a demand which
doesn’t recognize the reality of our economics today,”
Tagliabue said, adding that the players were pressing a “have
your cake and eat it too, proposal.”

Asked about the players’ demands, NFL Players Association
chief Gene Upshaw told reporters: “I won’t come down.”

The current collective bargaining pact with the NFL Players
Association has two more years to run, but had provisions in it
should the deal not be extended ahead of time.

Many teams had assumed a new deal would be in place and
anticipated having some $10 million more than the cap of $94.5
million prescribed for the 2006 season in the standing
agreement, which also calls for no cap at all in 2007.

A no-cap season in 2007 could create chaos in the league,
with the biggest market teams outspending smaller-revenue clubs
to stockpile talent — a condition that afflicts Major League
Baseball.

The NFL has avoided that scenario with strict revenue
sharing of their rich TV broadcast rights and a hard salary cap
to keep costs predictable.

The class of prospective free agents includes NFL MVP Shaun
Alexander of the Seattle Seahawks and fellow-running back
Edgerrin James of the Indianapolis Colts.