NFL Meetings : Owners Taking a Hard Line

In an outdoor dinner theater a few feet from the blue Pacific, the National Football League drew a line beyond which it won’t go--for the moment anyway--in the coming labor negotiations.

On the players’ first request, unrestricted free agency:

No.

On the players’ second request, guaranteed contracts:

No.

On unscheduled, random drug testing, which the players oppose:

Yes.

“I didn’t need much direction from the owners on free agency, but I got it,” said Jack Donlan, the league’s top negotiator, nicknamed Gloom and Doom by the players. “I didn’t need much direction on guaranteed contracts, but I got that as well.

“It’s a very strong no to both these issues.”

Said Gene Upshaw, director of the NFL Players’ Assn., from Washington: “Obviously we are here (on bargaining positions) and they are there.”

The collective bargaining contract expires Aug. 31, the eve of the regular season.

The players’ association will hold a convention next week in Los Angeles. Donlan says he expects formal proposals to be exchanged in early April. He and Upshaw have already had some meetings and informal proposals have been exchanged through the media.

Donlan and Upshaw have gotten along famously, at least compared to the way Donlan got along with Ed Garvey, the director when the players struck in 1982.

“I read where someone said that if Upshaw and I were any closer, we’d be picking out furniture,” Donlan said.

However, NFL people have been putting out the word that they’re worried that Garvey retains an influence, that Upshaw is surrounded by all the hold-over hard-liners from Garvey’s time.

“The concern I have is that everybody else (around Upshaw) is the same people,” Donlan said.

Said owner Art Modell of the Cleveland Browns: “I just hope Gene has a clear shot to make a deal.”

Al Davis flew home after Tuesday’s meetings. Had he felt any new note of conciliation coming from Pete Rozelle or any of his fellow owners?

“I’ve heard expressions of guys saying that,” he said. “But you know . . . I don’t get involved in that.”

It should be noted that everyone doesn’t subscribe to the new, harmonious line.

“Al Davis is Al Davis,” Cowboy president Tex Schramm said. “I recognize him for the problems he’s caused the league.”

And reports that the league is extending an olive branch to Davis?

“I thought that tree was cut down when they moved from Oakland to Los Angeles,” Schramm said.

A motion to penalize the home team for crowd noise that hinders a team, went under. It was backed by the competition committee and by the Raiders, San Diego Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs, who have to play in Seattle’s Kingdome every year, but met with such overwhelming opposition among the owners, it wasn’t even voted on.

“Our recommendation was that we pass it,” said Dolphins’ Coach Don Shula, a member of the committee. “The colleges have done that and it’s worked.”

“The committee felt very strongly,” said chairman Tex Schramm, “that there is a competitive disadvantage for the visiting team because of the sophistication of the fans knowing thy can disrupt the visiting team when it’s on offense.”

Also rejected:

--A proposal to insure that both teams get one possession in an overtime, and to play all overtime games until someone wins.

Passed were:

--A change in scheduling format for the four conference games a team plays outside its division. A first place team, instead of playing two other first place team and two fourth place teams, will play two firsts, a second and a third.

--A rule to promote kicking off down the middle, which says that kicks that go out of bounds won’t be re-kicked, but will be put in play at the return team’s 35-yard line.

--A rule tightening roughing the passer. Defenders are made responsible for knowing when a passer has released the ball and must attempt to pull up rather than drive through the quarterback. The new rule says a defender must up after one step whent the ball is released. The same rule applies to runners after they go out of bounds.

The owners are expected to vote this morning on a proposal to keep instant replay officiating for two more seasons, with calls made by an eighth official rather than personnel from the office of the NFL’s supervisor of officials.