Upshaw: Uncapped '07 Probably A Reality

[TonyB0D]

i doubt this well happen, but if it does, at least we have a billionaire owner!!  i hope they get the cap, because thats what makes the whole NFL exciting....i dont want it to turn into the MLB...

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Upshaw tells agents to prepare for uncapped '07
By John Clayton
ESPN.com


NFL Players' Association executive director Gene Upshaw told a seminar of agents on Friday to prepare for a 2006 season without an extension to the collective bargaining agreement, setting up an uncapped year in 2007.

"March 3 will be the beginning of a new league year and we are just not there yet," Upshaw said. "I'm taking the position now that it won't get done."

No negotiating sessions are scheduled although Upshaw said he is willing to talk. He told agents the issues are so far apart that there is virtually no way a deal could be set before next Thursday, the eve of the start of free agency. Under no circumstance, Upshaw said, will the union agree to delay the start of free agency to accommodate a deal.


“   March 3 will be the beginning of a new league year and we are just not there yet. I'm taking the position now that it won't get done. ”
— NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw
Three major issues were cited by Upshaw for an extension not getting done:

• Neither side can agree on the percentage of total revenues that will go to the players. Upshaw wouldn't elaborate on where the numbers were in the negotiations, but he has publicly said he wants a percentage number in the 60s. Reportedly, the sides are four percent apart but that number wasn't discussed by Upshaw.

"We want to have a higher percentage," Upshaw said. "We want more dollars to come into the system."

How significant is the percentage differential?

Upshaw said each percentage point is worth $2 million of cap room per team early in any CBA agreement, $2.5 million in the middle and $2.9 million in the end.

• The NFLPA won't agree to any type of CBA extension that doesn't have a new revenue sharing plan in the future. The differences between the teams with the highest and lowest revenue-sharing totals have grown as much as $100 million dollars. The league's owners aren't close on any revenue-sharing deal among themselves, and Upshaw considers that something the union would never accept in a new deal without revised revenue sharing.

• Upshaw's third difference is the league's "G-3" program in which money is loaned to teams by the league to finance new stadium construction. The union has to sign off on any "G-3" plan because it comes out of the gross revenue pool. Upshaw is asking for a "flip tax" in which the union gets a return on the investment. The NFLPA hasn't signed off on new stadium "G-3" deals for the Cowboys, Colts and Giants.

With nothing on the horizon that gives him optimism of any breakthroughs, Upshaw set a soft deadline of Friday for getting a CBA extension. According to him, the sides are so far apart that a six-year extension would be hard to settle before the hard deadline of March 3.

To give agents guidance, Upshaw told the room that the 2006 cap should be between $92 million and $95 million but he thinks the realistic number will be $96 million. That number should be settled within in the next day or so. He said the benefits package paid by teams is $13.8 million.

Though he will be available by phone, Upshaw planned to leave Indianapolis on Friday afternoon and return to Washington.

"I'm leaving," Upshaw said. "We're running out of time. You might as well prepare as if we are heading for an upcapped year."

[EDGECRUSHER]

The way I understand it, and maybe I don't, is that we can lure people with HEAVY signing bonuses and that is just up to the owner whether he wants to pay it or not. So, it would help us sign Brees and maybe Givens with lots of upfront cash.

[bsfins]

Slight hijack....

I remember hearing,or reading somewhere....That if there is a uncapped year..there's a good chance that thesalary cap will be done away with permantly...I want to say Peter King said it?

I have a hard time believing that...but...I also can see it...The players see it as away to get paid all they can...

I have to admit,I really don't like the way it's impacting this year.We finally get a front office that knows what thier doing...and we have the CBA screwing us....

[YoFuggedaboutit]

What if they have one uncapped year, then they go back to the cap after reaching a new agreement?  Then what happens?

[run_to_win]

Anyone else secretly hoping that the owners stand fast and just fire 'em all?  How many of these guys could even sniff $100,000 salary if not for football?  99% would come back for 50% salary.

[EDGECRUSHER]

I think Super Genius Vince Young can do pretty well for himself in the real world.

[YoFuggedaboutit]

I think Super Genius Vince Young can do pretty well for himself in the real world.

I agree.  I would hire anyone who scores a 6 on the Wonderlic test.

[run_to_win]

I wonder how many weeks of training it would take someone who scores a 6 to master the phrases "May I take your order?" and "Do you want fries with that?"

[EDGECRUSHER]

"Mommy says days my magic shoes".

[Sunstroke]

There is actually a good bit of optimism right now about the two sides coming to an agreement on a new extension to the CBA, so I'm hopeful this will soon be a done deal as well.

You guys dogging Vince on his low wonderlic score... My 49ers drafted the highest wonderlic from last year and the lowest. I'd argue that the guy with the lowest wonderlic score from last year (6, RB Frank Gore) impressed me even more than the guy with the highest score (40, QB Alex Smith). I did hear one funny quote on the Vince Young score... A reporter asked one NFL personnel guy if he thought that, if the 6 score was accurate, would Vince still be a top-5 pick? The personnel guy said "Yeah...at wide receiver."

Classic...

[bsfins]

A quick hijack....
Vince youngs wonderlic test would only worry me if it was a vison test.See the WR,Throw the ball to the WR...Look can youu see the 300# man coming after you...RUN!

Back on topic....
I hear Adam Shefter talking in Total access..It seemed like there was a decent chance this gets done by Weds. @ 4 EST


He also mentioned,that if a deal isn't done,he thought it would be the most roster cuts ever.He mentioned the TB situation...If there is a CBA,Brian griese will probably stay in TB,if not he'll probably be gone.....I feel the CBA,is why we haven't heard about the futures of alot of players.

[YoFuggedaboutit]

According to Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, significant progress has been made in reaching a new agreement.  Hopefully this will be completed by Wednesday.

[Brian Fein]

NFL nears new labor pact with players union
--------------------

By Alex Marvez
Sun-Sentinel.com

February 27, 2006, 12:17 PM EST

INDIANAPOLIS -- The NFL appears on the verge of reaching agreement on a new labor pact with its players union.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Monday that progress has been made in talks about a Collective Bargaining Agreement extension.

"I feel that we'll likely have a deal," Jones said while attending the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.

An agreement reached this week would likely delay the start of the free-agent signing period, which is scheduled to begin Friday. If a deal can't be completed by Friday, teams will have to follow the rules of the current CBA that would likely limit the number of lucrative free-agent contracts that could be offered because of salary cap restrictions.

Jones said negotiations between the league and the NFL Players Association could continue until Thursday.

"We've got a pretty tight timeframe here," Jones said. "[The CBA extension] would be framed into a situation that will reasonably address the beginning of the league year."

From a Dolphins standpoint, a new CBA agreement would greatly help the team's cap situation and give the franchise more freedom in shaping its 2006 roster. The Dolphins are reportedly one of eight teams that are at least $8 million over the 2006 cap, which is projected between $92 million and $95 million.

Copyright (c) 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

[raptorsfan29]

Upshaw says NFL labor talks break down againESPN.com news services


NFL labor talks broke off Tuesday three days before the start of free agency, leaving teams and players in a quandary about negotiating new contracts.

Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Association, spent the last three days meeting in New York and Washington with commissioner Paul Tagliabue.

"We're deadlocked. There's nowhere to go," Upshaw said. "There's no reason to continue meeting."

The NFL acknowledged the talks had broken off and said no further discussions were scheduled. The league said it would not extend Friday's deadline for the start of free agency.

Although the contract does not expire until after the 2007 season, this is a critical period in the negotiations to extend the 12-year-old contract. Talks have been going on for more than a year.


Without an extension, the 2007 season would become a so-called uncapped year with no spending limit and no minimum, and players could potentially face a lockout in 2008.

Team officials and player agents have said that doing business without an extension -- particularly with the free agent signing period set to begin Friday and the draft on April 29-30 -- will prove virtually impossible. Because of the extreme circumstances that would exist with an uncapped year on the horizon, it would be difficult to meet the financial expectations of free agents and high-round draft choices.


"We're too far apart on our economics and too far apart on revenue sharing -- the ball is in their court," Upshaw said. "We'll go to the uncapped year, there won't be an extension."

Free agency is scheduled to start Friday. If the deal is not extended, this would be the last year with a salary cap, so agents and team officials want to know how to structure contracts.

For example, if there is no extension, the salary cap is expected to be about $95 million this season and annual raises after 2006 in a long-term deal would be limited to 30 percent. If the deal is extended the cap could be $10 million or more higher.

The sides have agreed on a number of issues. The biggest one is changing the formula for the amount of money to go to the players from "designated gross revenues" -- primarily television and ticket sales -- to "total gross revenues," which include almost every bit a money a a team generates.

They differ, however, on the percentage of revenues to be allocated to the players -- the union is asking for 60 percent and the league's current offer is 56.2 percent.

But there are also disputes among groups of owners on that issue, too. Tagliabue has called a league meeting in New York for Thursday to explain to NFL clubs why the sides have been unable to come to an agreement.

Teams with lower revenues -- mostly small-market clubs -- say that if the contributions to the players' fund are equally apportioned among 32 franchises, they will have to pay a substantially larger proportion of their nontelevision and ticket money because they have less. Owners of high-revenue teams, like Dallas' Jerry Jones, claim spreading the load equally would force some teams to work harder to generate new sources of money.

Another high-revenue owner, New England's Robert Kraft, says the formula does not take stadium debt into account, as he has on Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.


ESPN.com's Len Pasquarelli reported Monday that league owners were scheduled to meet Tuesday via conference call to discuss the status of negotiations.

Two owners told Pasquarelli on Monday afternoon that they have delayed their departures from Indianapolis, site of the NFL scouting combine since Wednesday, to accommodate the 6 p.m. ET timing of the conference call.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said "internal revenue-sharing issues" would not be discussed at the meeting.

Information from The Associated Press and ESPN.com's Len Pasquarelli was used in this report.
 

[run_to_win]

"Experts" anticipate a boatload of addition cuts because of this.  Why?

Couldn't teams "Brian Griese" every top free-agent?  (Offer a low first year salary for the capped 2006 season and ridiculous 2nd year salary for the uncapped 2007 season)? 

Without a salary cap isn't SB XLII basically for sale?