We haven’t accomplished much, so I’m going to sue you
Today Gene Upshaw made it known that if the NFL didn’t hurry up and let him have his way, they would sue.
The NFL Players Association is preparing to take the league to court if there is no immediate progress on a new contract.
NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw set March 9 as the date he will begin consulting players on legal action if no deal has been reached to extend the collective bargaining agreement. Upshaw said the current stalemate is due more to a disagreement among the owners on revenue sharing than conflict between the league and the union.
The current contract expires after the 2007 season, but it calls for an uncapped year in ‘07. Without a new CBA, negotiations on individual contracts in the free-agent period that begins March 3 will be much more difficult for teams and players.
“The price of poker will go up,” Upshaw said at the union’s Super Bowl news conference. “We can not stay in the place where we are now.”
The league and the owners have been negotiating for more than a year on an extension to the contract first agreed upon in
But this is the first time there has been a stalemate, primarily because of the dispute between high-revenue teams such as Washington, Dallas, Houston and New England, and teams with less local money available from items ranging from parking to stadium signage.
Upshaw insisted the union is prepared for decertification, which involves disbanding and going to antitrust court to ask for a set of rules under which the NFL would operate. The union did that to end the monthlong 1987 strike and played without a contract until 1992, when the court ruled in its favor — leading to the current deal negotiated with commissioner Paul Tagliabue and the owners. That deal included free agency for the first time, as well as the salary cap, which took effect in 1993.
“We’ve demonstrated we are not afraid to decertify,” Upshaw said. “We understand the laws and what’s available to us.”
Upshaw warned if the dispute continues through 2007, then the salary cap is likely to be gone — for good.
There’s more in the full article, but that’s the gist of it. It all boils down to the fact that the players want more money, the rich teams don’t want to share money, and the poor teams won’t cooperate.
We keep hearing that they are “close” to making a deal, and are in the “final steps” of agreeing, but if you’ve been in the same place for a year, I wouldn’t call that place “close”, which makes me think we’re going to go uncapped in 2007.
Related Stories
POSTED IN: NFL Football
0 opinions for We haven’t accomplished much, so I’m going to sue you
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: