The NFL is unlikely to push back its scheduled free-agency period, which starts next week, in order to gain more time to extend the collective-bargaining agreement with its players.
Multiple published reports last week said the league and union might push free agency beyond the slated March 3 start date, but that seems out of the question. In fact, the league has scheduled a March 7 meeting in Dallas, at which owners are expected either to approve a new CBA or discuss the difficulties of signing free agents and rookies with only two years remaining on the current labor deal.
“If the parties have an agreement, we have the power to put that off,” said Jeffrey Kessler, the NFL Players Association’s outside counsel, of the March 3 date. “But there hasn’t been any real discussion about it because we haven’t been close to an agreement.”
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello agreed that there have been no discussions to change the league calendar. “Maybe it’s someone’s wishful thinking,” Aiello said.
The two sides have been warring over how much money the players will get in the new deal. While two years remain on the existing CBA, the second year would have no salary cap. And because of how teams account for the salary cap, fitting free agent and rookie contracts under the current system could prove tricky.
“Right now, I have no reason to be optimistic other than the fact that we have been meeting, and that is better than not meeting,” Kessler said.
The week of the Dallas meeting is shaping up as a critical one. On Thursday of that week, March 9, the union begins its annual meeting in Hawaii, where executive director Gene Upshaw has warned that the group may begin discussions of decertification. When the CBA expires in 2008, the union could decertify, so the teams legally could not lock the players out.
