Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he expects the NFL to opt out of its controversial labor pact, becoming the first of the league’s owners to say so.
Jones’ statement follows recent comments from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen, who publicly complained about the current collective-bargaining agreement being too favorable to the league’s players. Jones, though, is the first owner to predict the league will cast aside the current deal by Nov. 8, the latest the league could do so this year.
Asked as he was leaving agent Leigh Steinberg’s party the day before the Super Bowl if he thought the owners would opt out, Jones replied, “I think so, yeah. That would be, I would second what Gene says.”
Gene is NFLPA Executive Director Gene Upshaw, who has said he expects the owners to scuttle the deal.
“It’s very accurate to say that the recent negotiated labor contract swung the pendulum to Gene and his crew,” Jones said. “Just as he has a constituency, the league has its constituency, and where it is right now is, it is just not working.”
Beyond being the first owner to publicly say the league would abandon the CBA — and an influential owner, too — Jones’ position is symbolically important for another reason: He was the owner the league put before the media minutes after the current CBA passed by a late-night, 30-2 vote in March 2006. Even then, he said, “The proposal from the union was a mean mother.”
That vote occurred after two days of intensive discussions among owners, who were confronted with a take-it-or-leave-it offer from the union. Owners appeared cowed by the prospect of not extending the prior agreement and facing a season without a salary cap two years later.
The current CBA runs through 2011, with the final year containing no salary cap. However, the deal gives either side until Nov. 8 of this year to opt out. If that happens, 2009 is a normal year under the agreement, but 2010 becomes the last season of the deal and the salary cap is dropped.
“What Jones said is not [a] surprise,” Upshaw wrote in an e-mail last week. “They have to get 24 votes to keep the CBA in place. We know that and are preparing for the opt out. One problem, we are not giving them anything back. I put my Santa Claus suit away on Dec. 26 after we opened gifts. There were no presents for owners in my bag. Quote me on that please. I’m at the Pro Bowl, and the players understand exactly what is going on.”
Dallas’ Jerry Jones says the CBA is
“just not working” for the NFL owners.
During Super Bowl week, Upshaw told reporters that the union at its March annual meeting would focus on four items: a strike, a lockout, decertifying the union so the players could sue the league under antitrust laws, and a settlement.
Under the current labor deal, players receive on average 59 percent to 60 percent of all league revenue, which totals about $7 billion. Owners contend that percentage is too high and that the union should have to share in the financial risk of generating that money.
While Jones is the first owner to say the league will opt out, signs of such a move have been appearing for a while. Owners at their annual meeting last year, for example, approved a new revenue-sharing plan for lower-revenue teams that extends only through 2009. If the expectation had been that the uncapped year would be 2011, the revenue-sharing deal presumably would have been extended at least into the capped 2010.
Owners are next scheduled to meet in Florida in late March, though the league usually has committee meetings several weeks prior. Because the CBA states that the opt out must occur “on or before November 8,” as opposed to just on that date, the owners theoretically could choose to pull the trigger at any time.
Since the original signing of the league’s CBA in 1993, labor stability has been intertwined with the NFL’s success. Franchise values have soared along with revenue since that time, making the prediction of an opt out all the more jarring.
“Labor peace is one of the key underpinnings of the success of the NFL,” said sports investment banker Sal Galatioto, who has advised and lent to several NFL teams. “The fact that it has been such a long period of labor relations, a lockout or strike would have significant negative impact on the league, its fans, continued growth [and] its ratings.”
Staff writer Liz Mullen contributed to this report.
