More Delays
NFL Pushes Back Deadline To Start Free Agency Once Again
Nick Eatman -
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DallasCowboys.com Staff Writer
March 5, 2006 11:47 PM
IRVING, Texas - Once again the NFL Players Association and the NFL league owners ended three days of talks without a deal.
The only thing the two sides seem to agree upon is pushing back the start of free agency.
After talks broke down again Sunday night in an effort to get a new Collective Bargaining Agreement before the start of the new league year, the NFL announced the deadline has been postponed again - this time 72 more hours until 11 p.m. (CST) Wednesday.
However, this time NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue is expected to get involved. Reports suggest Tagliabue is prepared to take the latest proposal from the players and allow the league owners to examine it one more time.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the delay would give owners a chance to consider the union's latest proposal during a meeting scheduled for Tuesday in Dallas.
But it appeared late Sunday evening both sides had run out of time after the deadline had even been pushed back to the 11th hour Sunday night.
"The talks ended after the NFL gave us a proposal which provided a percentage of revenues for the players which would be less than they received over the last 12 years," said Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Association. "After suggesting we extend the waiver deadline from six o'clock to 10 this evening, they gave us a new proposal which was worse than their prior offer. Quite naturally, we rejected that proposal and saw no need to continue meeting."
But Harold Henderson, the NFL's executive vice president for labor relations, said the union rejected a proposal that would have added $577 million for players in 2006 compared to 2005 and $1.5 billion in the six years of the extension. "It's an unfortunate situation for the players, the fans and the league," Henderson said.
For now, no more face to face negotiations have been scheduled between the owners and NFLPA in an attempt to land a new CBA. But both sides have bought another 72 hours to try to work out a deal. With the latest postponement, teams now must be in salary cap compliance by 8 p.m. (CST) Wednesday and free agency now is set to begin at 11:01 p.m. Wednesday.
That is, if the deadline is not pushed back yet another time. Obviously, neither side wants to face the consequences that come with the failure to extend the CBA.
While several teams were left scrambling before the first deadline and were forced to cut several high-priced players, the Cowboys still are in good salary cap shape, no matter when free agency officially begins and no matter if a new CBA is reached or not.
Without a new deal, the Cowboys will have nearly $15 million to spend in free agency. If a deal is reached, which would likely raise the current salary cap of $94.5 million to close to $105 million, the Cowboys would have anywhere from $20-25 million in cap space to spend in free agency.
Now they did release Pro Bowl defensive tackle La'Roi Glover last Thursday, saving $6 million in cap space.
But for now, Glover is the only cap-casualty for the Cowboys, who will likely join teams such as Minnesota, Arizona and Cleveland as the potential big spenders during free agency.
In fact, the Cowboys have been ready to begin free agency since last week, and there are indications they will start quickly signing players, just as they did last year.
However, most teams aren't as fortunate. In fact, many teams were well over the salary cap all day Sunday, still hoping a deal would be struck in the final hours. But as Tagliabue said earlier in the week, the situation seemed as "dire as dire" could be.
"The talks ended today after the NFL gave us a proposal which provided a percentage of revenues for the players which would be less than they received over the last 12 years," Upshaw earlier Sunday evening. "After suggesting we extend the waiver deadline from six o'clock to 10 this evening, they gave us a new proposal which was worse than their prior offer. Quite naturally, we rejected that proposal and saw no need to continue meeting."
And moments before the NFL announced the latest deadline extension, Upshaw made a rather bold statement about the future of the league.
"There will be football in 2006,"he said. "There will be football in 2007. But we don't know what's going to happen in 2008. But I can tell you this, there won't be a cap."
Maybe that's why the NFL has stepped in to call a timeout once again.
Hopefully, this time some kind of agreement can be reached.
Either way, the Cowboys will be patiently waiting to get started in free agency.
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