Angel
03-03-2006, 10:17 AM
If no new deal by Sunday, expect unprecedented offseason
March 3, 2006
By Clark Judge
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
At last, common sense.
The decision to postpone free agency is the first sign that the NFL and its players union grasp just how irrational they're behaving and how important it is for them to reach a settlement on a new collective bargaining agreement before going where they were headed Thursday.
Which was nowhere.
In a show of solidarity, the league's 32 owners broke off talks early Thursday with the NFL Players Association and unanimously endorsed a vote of the league's labor committee to reject the NFLPA's demands. When union executive director Gene Upshaw fired back that he wouldn't back down, it seemed an agreement was doomed.
And it still might be. But it's hard to imagine after the union requested that the free-agency deadline -- originally set for late Thursday -- be postponed three days "to provide time to resume negotiations," according to an NFL spokesman.
Hallelujah. It's high time someone realized what these two were about to sacrifice.
Imagine what would have happened if the league and its union remained at a stalemate, and we entered Friday with no new agreement. There would have been a glut of free agents, and I'm not just talking about unrestricted free agents; I'm talking about unexpected ones, too.
With the salary cap held at $94.5 million instead of $105 million -- a figure that had been anticipated -- more than half the teams would have had to scramble to meet Thursday night's deadline. That would have meant last-minute cost-cuts, which would have meant last-minute roster moves -- and it doesn't take a genius to realize the repercussions for some high-priced, high-profile players.
"It would be like the Oklahoma land rush," predicted agent Leigh Steinberg.
Only many of these wagons wouldn't have budged. Without a new CBA, some clubs would be prevented from adding new players because of a tighter cap. But that's not all. There would be enough restrictions on new contracts -- including provisions that cap prorated bonuses at four years instead of six -- to reduce the number of free-agent shoppers and change the way an assortment of clubs conduct their offseason business.
"I think you'll find as many as half of them will be out of free agency," said Jim Steiner, who represents MVP Shaun Alexander. "(If there is no deal) players are going to have to understand the situation, and they will once it occurs. If this happens, it would make it hard to get deals done.
"It would be hard to restructure deals because of the 30-percent rule (clubs can't increase annual base salaries by more than 30 percent). It would make it hard to do deals because of the four-year proration, too. You're looking at everything upside down. It's kind of like owning a car and having the loan worth more than the car."
Steiner is in a good position to evaluate. As Alexander's agent, he should be at or near a deal with the Seahawks -- the club Alexander helped push to the Super Bowl -- or on the verge of fielding calls from numerous suitors. So far, there is no new contract with Seattle, though Steiner acknowledged "talks are continuing," and he's not certain what happens when and if Alexander becomes an unrestricted free agent.
"I'm not sure what to expect," he said. "You'd like to think there would be a lot of interest in the league MVP, but I'm just not sure."
Steiner's uncertainty is echoed by others, who believe a failure to reach a settlement on a new CBA would not only affect players who didn't figure to become free agents but would have an enormous impact on the clubs able to sign them. While the number of free agents would increase, the number of markets would shrink -- not exactly what either side had in mind.
"The overwhelming majority of players who will be released would've been released even if there had been an extension," said agent Mike Sullivan. "Where there is a difference is that there won't be the money for a lot of them to go back to work. That room used to be created by restructuring contracts to create additional cap room, but you can't do that under the new rules."
Sullivan believes the real impact of a stalemate wouldn't be felt until 2007, when the league would enter into an uncapped year where free agents don't become unrestricted until after their sixth seasons -- as opposed to after their fourth years under the present deal.
"You could find massive holdouts of the fourth-and-fifth-year players," he said, "which would disrupt the system."
Maybe, but it's hard for many people to believe the NFL and the union would allow things to disintegrate to that point. Of course, it's hard for those same people to believe that we came as close as we did on Thursday before sanity prevailed and a cooling off period was declared.
"We're peering into an apocalyptic abyss," said Steinberg, who represents Southern California quarterback Matt Leinart. "The key to all this is that professional football is incredibly healthy, and the reason it's been healthy is that there hasn't been a labor dispute in 20 years. Management and the NFL Players Association are too smart to emulate the self-destruction exhibited by baseball, basketball and hockey in past years."
You can only hope.
http://www.sportsline.com/print/nfl/story/9280910
March 3, 2006
By Clark Judge
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer
At last, common sense.
The decision to postpone free agency is the first sign that the NFL and its players union grasp just how irrational they're behaving and how important it is for them to reach a settlement on a new collective bargaining agreement before going where they were headed Thursday.
Which was nowhere.
In a show of solidarity, the league's 32 owners broke off talks early Thursday with the NFL Players Association and unanimously endorsed a vote of the league's labor committee to reject the NFLPA's demands. When union executive director Gene Upshaw fired back that he wouldn't back down, it seemed an agreement was doomed.
And it still might be. But it's hard to imagine after the union requested that the free-agency deadline -- originally set for late Thursday -- be postponed three days "to provide time to resume negotiations," according to an NFL spokesman.
Hallelujah. It's high time someone realized what these two were about to sacrifice.
Imagine what would have happened if the league and its union remained at a stalemate, and we entered Friday with no new agreement. There would have been a glut of free agents, and I'm not just talking about unrestricted free agents; I'm talking about unexpected ones, too.
With the salary cap held at $94.5 million instead of $105 million -- a figure that had been anticipated -- more than half the teams would have had to scramble to meet Thursday night's deadline. That would have meant last-minute cost-cuts, which would have meant last-minute roster moves -- and it doesn't take a genius to realize the repercussions for some high-priced, high-profile players.
"It would be like the Oklahoma land rush," predicted agent Leigh Steinberg.
Only many of these wagons wouldn't have budged. Without a new CBA, some clubs would be prevented from adding new players because of a tighter cap. But that's not all. There would be enough restrictions on new contracts -- including provisions that cap prorated bonuses at four years instead of six -- to reduce the number of free-agent shoppers and change the way an assortment of clubs conduct their offseason business.
"I think you'll find as many as half of them will be out of free agency," said Jim Steiner, who represents MVP Shaun Alexander. "(If there is no deal) players are going to have to understand the situation, and they will once it occurs. If this happens, it would make it hard to get deals done.
"It would be hard to restructure deals because of the 30-percent rule (clubs can't increase annual base salaries by more than 30 percent). It would make it hard to do deals because of the four-year proration, too. You're looking at everything upside down. It's kind of like owning a car and having the loan worth more than the car."
Steiner is in a good position to evaluate. As Alexander's agent, he should be at or near a deal with the Seahawks -- the club Alexander helped push to the Super Bowl -- or on the verge of fielding calls from numerous suitors. So far, there is no new contract with Seattle, though Steiner acknowledged "talks are continuing," and he's not certain what happens when and if Alexander becomes an unrestricted free agent.
"I'm not sure what to expect," he said. "You'd like to think there would be a lot of interest in the league MVP, but I'm just not sure."
Steiner's uncertainty is echoed by others, who believe a failure to reach a settlement on a new CBA would not only affect players who didn't figure to become free agents but would have an enormous impact on the clubs able to sign them. While the number of free agents would increase, the number of markets would shrink -- not exactly what either side had in mind.
"The overwhelming majority of players who will be released would've been released even if there had been an extension," said agent Mike Sullivan. "Where there is a difference is that there won't be the money for a lot of them to go back to work. That room used to be created by restructuring contracts to create additional cap room, but you can't do that under the new rules."
Sullivan believes the real impact of a stalemate wouldn't be felt until 2007, when the league would enter into an uncapped year where free agents don't become unrestricted until after their sixth seasons -- as opposed to after their fourth years under the present deal.
"You could find massive holdouts of the fourth-and-fifth-year players," he said, "which would disrupt the system."
Maybe, but it's hard for many people to believe the NFL and the union would allow things to disintegrate to that point. Of course, it's hard for those same people to believe that we came as close as we did on Thursday before sanity prevailed and a cooling off period was declared.
"We're peering into an apocalyptic abyss," said Steinberg, who represents Southern California quarterback Matt Leinart. "The key to all this is that professional football is incredibly healthy, and the reason it's been healthy is that there hasn't been a labor dispute in 20 years. Management and the NFL Players Association are too smart to emulate the self-destruction exhibited by baseball, basketball and hockey in past years."
You can only hope.
http://www.sportsline.com/print/nfl/story/9280910