Upshaw to Owners: 'No Santa Claus'
There will be some saber-rattling from NFL owners this week here in Palm Beach about what a bad deal the current collective bargaining agreement has been for them.
A CBA discussion is on the agenda for Monday here at the NFL's Annual Meeting at The Breakers. Expect them to come out of that meeting loaded for bear.
The upper hand they held for decades over players has been flipped since the new CBA was passed in March 2006. The most glaring example: the salary cap for each team has risen from $85.5 million in March of 2006 before the new CBA kicked in to $116 million this year. Deals in which payrolls rise $30 million in two years time aren't the kind these guys are accustomed to making.
In November, there will be a vote by the owners to remain in the deal and 24 of the 32 have to agree. That seems unlikely. Which means panic in 2009 in anticipation of an uncapped year in 2010 and the likelihood of a work-stoppage in 2011.
But the players kind of like the deal. And a look back at the extremely hard-line stance NFLPA president Gene Upshaw took at the Super Bowl portends a vicious battle.
"I just don't want the owners to believe that somehow there is a Santa Claus," Upshaw said at the Super Bowl. "There's not one."
"There is not a player in the league at this point that doesn't understand if we ever get to that territory, where there's no cap, we'll never have another one again. I know that I am not going to be the one pushing to have a cap if we go through an uncapped year. As a matter of fact, I'll agree with the players and that's where they are and we feel very strongly about that.
"Now the owners' attitude has been the players have too good of a deal, that the deal that we bargained and agreed to gives the players too much. I've talked to several owners, and I'll continue to talk to several owners, but I can't convince the players that they should take less so the owner can make more. I can't sell that.
"So I don't know what their problems are. I have no idea when I hear that it's not working, that the partnership needs to be adjusted, that we need to tweak it, but whenever I hear those words, I know being around this business so long, that it always means give us something back. Well, that's not going to happen on this watch, that's for sure."
Upshaw went on to say at the Super Bowl that his players would be educated in the likelhood of a strike, a lockout, decertification and an extension.
"Now where all this ends up, I wish I had a crystal ball to tell you; I don't," he added. "But I know at the end of the day whatever we agree to is going to be fair for the players. We're not going to agree to a deal that's not fair. We're not going to agree to a deal that rolls back the economics. We are not hockey players. And they're not hockey owners. So this is what they have to understand. And if they believe that there's a chance that we're the hockey players, that curved stick in the ice, that ain't us. The economics in this league are good and getting better. I can tell you, we're getting 60 percent of the revenues, when it's all said and done, we're not giving any of it back."
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Drilling deeply into the mantle layer of America's Passion, NBCSports.com's Tom Curran offers up quick hits and insights on all things NFL.
It's the old cliché that's been around for years - millionaires fighting billionaires for more money. How many more dollars can a greedy SOB like Jerry Jones stuff into his pockets? With these greedy people, is there ever enough wealth to satisfy their insatiable appetite for MORE? Good Lord. And the people who are bankrolling this greed are the average, every-day, run-of-the-mill saps who buy the tickets, jerseys, hats etc. I think there should be a greed cap on owners, players and corporate America's executives as well. Greed is what's turning other countries against us and bringing this country to it's knees. But of course this greed thing will never stop. How can it?