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Team owners break off talks with players union

Posted on: Thursday, 2 March 2006, 19:44 CST

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.

Source: REUTERS

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