NFL WANTS IN ON LABOR PROBLEMS, TOO?

     NFLPA Exec Dir Gene Upshaw met with Eagles players yesterday
in an "hourlong venting session ... over the inequities and
injustices of the NFL's new salary cap."  The only "positive
development" in the session was Upshaw's announcement that the
NFLPA would like to settle the grievance the union has filed
against the league, and the Eagles "to restore the salary
reductions" handed down to some Eagle players.  Sources say
Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie "is torn about whether to pursue the
grievance case all the way to the arbitration hearing, which is
scheduled for Monday and Tuesday" of next week.  "Lurie would
like to eliminate the distraction, but he also thinks the team
has an ironclad case."  Upshaw and Harold Henderson, chair of the
NFL's management council, could settle the case -- "if Lurie and
the players involved agree."  Some players want an
acknowledgement by the NFL that what the Eagles did cannot happen
again (S.A. Paolantonio, PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 10/6).  Eagle
tackle Broderick Thompson, who was forced to take a $200,000 pay
cut, characterized the meeting has "hostile, very hostile"
(CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 10/6).