faba Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 'I don't think negotiations are going very well' Associated Press DETROIT -- NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue is not expecting any sudden breakthroughs with the players' union on a contract extension. "We're not making the kind of progress we need to be making," he said Friday during his annual state of the league address. "I don't think negotiations are going very well." The collective bargaining agreement expires after the 2007 season. But under the current contract, there would be no salary cap in 2007, and NFL Players Association executive Gene Upshaw insists if the cap disappears then, it won't come back. While avoiding the strong rhetoric uttered by Upshaw earlier this week, Tagliabue did not sound too optimistic about getting a deal done before the NFL meetings begin March 25 in Orlando, Fla. "I do think there needs to be an outreach and more reality on both sides," Tagliabue said. "There needs to be a positive dose of reality on both sides of the table. To some degree, positions are hardening on both sides when they shouldn't be." The league and the owners have been negotiating for more than a year on an extension to the contract first agreed upon in 1993. An added element to what usually have been relatively smooth talks: owners are split on how to divide revenues that will go to the players. High-revenue teams who make more money from sources other than television and ticket sales are balking at contributing the same percentage of their income as low-revenue franchises. Upshaw set March 9 to begin consulting players on legal action if no deal has been reached. Tagliabue doesn't have such an immediate sense of urgency, but he's not loafing on the issue, either. "A lot of things get done at the 11th hour and 55th minute," Tagliabue said. "I don't know if we'll get something done by the league meetings." Upshaw talked Thursday about potential legal action and even a decertification of the union. Tagliabue conceded those were possibilities, but "I don't think we'll be in litigation or decertification." The commissioner also noted that while the "Rooney rule" that requires interviewing minority candidates for coaching and front office jobs is working, no minorities got any of the eight openings filled thus far. Oakland has yet to hire a new coach. "I thought we were getting beyond the stereotypes and these men were accepted as coaches, not as minority coaches," Tagliabue said. "I thought it would carry over to the hiring process and it didn't. "We all understand the need to be aggressive to blitz this issue. We need to be measured by what we do and achieve, and not by what we say." Tagliabue also: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spjets Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 i wonder how many teams would pull a stienbrenner and just PAY PAY PAY.. snieder=definately.. jerry jones=maybe... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor99 Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 i wonder how many teams would pull a stienbrenner and just PAY PAY PAY.. snieder=definately.. jerry jones=maybe... Woody Johnson? Absolutely not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatsFanTX Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 i wonder how many teams would pull a stienbrenner and just PAY PAY PAY.. snieder=definately.. jerry jones=maybe... Probably more than you think. The last thing Tagliabue wants is an uncapped year in the NFL. Even one year will throw the league out of whack for years to come even if they finally agree on a cap the following year. Tagliabue has been pretty quiet in all of this publically, but you can bet your bottom dollar he is working like hell with both sides to come to an agreement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dierking Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 The NFL is too smart to allow any kind of disruption to what they have now. The owners, the players, media-They are all sitting on something that they don't want to give up. Teh Union kind of caved in the 1993 negotiations, and they are looking to Upshaw to get something back. He will give all appearances of that, but when this deal comes down to teh final hours, it will be signed. There is too much to lose on all sides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
124 Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 Right now they are saying 2007 would be a cap free season and if it gets to that point there will never be a cap in the NFL again...which would really piss me off. We need things to get settled because if there is no cap then this sport will be no better then Baseball with a few dominating teams usually winning it all and always in the playoffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Dierking Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 The one chip I have not heard thrown around at all is the dissolving of teh Franchise and Transitional Tags. I knwo that was a point of player consternation in the original deal. If that point is considered conceded already as staying, I don't see how this deal cannot get done. If it doesn't get done, then the owners are complete idiots. The one thing the NFL has always been able to do that the other sports have not is to stay united in the ownership and management. I can't see that breaking over something that is so relatively trivial. It has to be for the good of the greater whole Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mudcat21 Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 If there is no cap in 2007, we should push all our bad contracts into that year. Have Martin and Penny renegotiate for minimum pay in 2006 and big payout guarenteed money in 2007. Could get us out of cap hell assuming Woody isn't cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PatsFanTX Posted February 3, 2006 Share Posted February 3, 2006 The one chip I have not heard thrown around at all is the dissolving of teh Franchise and Transitional Tags. I knwo that was a point of player consternation in the original deal. If that point is considered conceded already as staying, I don't see how this deal cannot get done. If it doesn't get done, then the owners are complete idiots. The one thing the NFL has always been able to do that the other sports have not is to stay united in the ownership and management. I can't see that breaking over something that is so relatively trivial. It has to be for the good of the greater whole Dierk, I think you nailed it. The Union (and players) absolutely hate the Franchise and Transition tags. All the owners need to do is eliminate those and raise the overall cap figure by 10%. CBA would then be a done deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4HCrew Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 I think the powers that be are way too smart to even get the word of work stoppage out. Football has evolved as the premiere sport in the country and a billion dollar industry and it would be insanity to change it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIGHT STALKER Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 I don't know, sometimes I wonder if the Jets would have a better shot winning the entire thing if they eliminated the cap. That's providing Woody would go on a spending spree and the brass making personnel decisions knew what they were doing. We ain't having no luck with the way things are. Even Jimmy Johnson, as good as some fans claimed he was, couldn't win a SB once a cap was instituted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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