PRO FOOTBALL ’87 : Strike Date Set: Sept. 22

The National Football League Players Assn. on Tuesday announced a strike date of Sept. 22, the day after the second week of the regular season ends.

“Management really left us no choice but to set a strike date,” said Gene Upshaw, executive director of the players union. “These guys want to play football, that’s all they want to do. But they will not accept the servitude they (team owners) want us to accept.”

The five-year collective bargaining agreement that settled the 57-day 1982 strike expired Aug. 31, leaving the NFL players without a contract. The union and management have bargained only once since Aug. 14.

The walkout deadline was set Aug. 31 following a meeting of the NFLPA executive board, but union officials decided to delay making the date public until it could meet with its player representatives. The board voted 24-4 on the strike date, Upshaw said.

On Monday, management issued its latest contract offer to the union, including a “liberalization” of the league’s restrictive free agency system, a two-man roster increase and improved benefits for players. Upshaw termed the proposal “garbage.”

The league’s owners are scheduled to meet Thursday in Chicago with Jack Donlan, executive director of the Management Council. Upshaw said he hopes negotiations between the two sides could resume as soon as Friday, two days before the outset of the regular season.

Upshaw has said he plans to talk to Commissioner Pete Rozelle later this week to discuss the negotiations. Upshaw said he would not mind having Rozelle join the talks, but he said the union perceives the commissioner as a representative of management.

If the NFLPA had waited to strike until after the third week of the season, players could have earned the minimum amount of playing time needed to qualify for a full year of pension. Asked why the union did not delay the strike until then, Upshaw said, “The players felt that was the time we would have the most leverage. If we delayed any longer, that would just delay the talks longer.”