Salary cap could be gone after 2010
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Green Bay -- National Football League owners voted unanimouslyTuesday to terminate the collective bargaining agreement with theplayers union after the 2010 season.
As a result, the league's much-celebrated parity, which allowsfor small cities such as Green Bay and Buffalo to compete with big-city franchises, could be on a death march as well.
The 2008 and '09 seasons will be unaffected by the owners'decision but the 2010 season will be played without a salary cap ifan extension is not reached by March of that year. A lockout by theowners would likely precede the 2011 season if a new agreement isnot in place.
"We voted today the way we did because the CBA as it currentlyoperates doesn't work for the clubs," Packers President Mark Murphysaid before leaving Atlanta, the site of the owners' meetings. "Theone thing, just to remind people, is that we'll have at least threemore seasons of football before the collective bargaining agreementexpires and I think everybody's goal is to maintain labor peacethroughout the 2011 season and beyond."
Considering that the Packers have never been in better shape onand off the field, it seems strange they would vote to terminate acontract that has allowed them to flourish.
"I think the Packers have always been very supportive of theleague," Murphy said. "I think if you look back over our history,we've benefited greatly from the league's policies on revenuesharing and from recent collective bargaining agreements. We want tobe supportive of the process and I think as we look toward thefuture, the agreement is just not working as well as it could be oras previous agreements have worked, for the owners."
Murphy's predecessor, Bob Harlan, said after the 2006 vote on theextension that having no salary cap would be "devastating" for thePackers, who reside in the 70th-largest television market, theleague's smallest.
"I think a salary cap is good for the game, it's good for theowners and I'm hopeful that we don't get to that point (without acap) and that we can reach an agreement before then," Murphy said.
Murphy, a former NFL safety, is no stranger to labor strife. Hewas on the front lines during the strikes in 1982 and '87. Duringthe latter, he was assistant executive director of the NFL Players Association.
Commissioner Roger Goodell said the owners were unhappy withthree "substantial" components of the collective bargainingagreement they passed in 2006: too many of the revenues were goingto the players (60%), rookies were getting too much money up frontand the owners could not recoup signing bonuses from players whobreach their contracts.
NFL Players' Association executive director Gene Upshaw has beenbriefing the players for months on the possible ramifications of theowners' vote, which ended the collective bargaining agreement threeyears early.
"This comes as no surprise to the players," Upshaw said in astatement. "It was the owner's choice to opt out of the agreementbecause they feel the current labor agreement does not recognize thecost of building stadiums, a rookie wage scale and players whobreech their contract. All of these issues have been addressed andcontinue to be addressed."
Upshaw has maintained that the union will not accept a salary capafter it is gone.
