NFL Management, Union Disagree on Progress

NFL strike negotiators bargained for the third consecutive day Thursday, with the union hinting regular games could resume this weekend and management calling such talk an “overstatement.”

The NFL Players Assn. and the NFL Management Council met for four hours at a hotel in Tysons Corner, Va., and discussed the players’ demand for free agency, the major stumbling block in the 17-day walkout. They resumed talks late in the afternoon, then broke for dinner.

Union Executive Director Gene Upshaw and Management Council Executive Director Jack Donlan, who met for 11 hours over the previous two days, led the bargaining teams.

The NFLPA painted a glowing picture of the state of negotiations, saying a collective bargaining agreement might be completed in time for striking players to return to the field this weekend.

Union assistant executive director Doug Allen said those issues discussed were: free agency, severance pay, pension benefits, the duration of the contract and option clauses in individual contracts.

Management Council spokesman John Jones said the union made an “overstatement of the actual progress that has taken place.”

In a statement released from his office, Upshaw said he was “encouraged with the progress and if we can move as fast on other areas, there’s a possibility we can play this weekend.”

“Today means a lot,” he said. “Today is a key day.”

Jones said the players did not abandon their call for unrestricted free agency--a player’s ability to sell his services to other teams after his contract has expired--for veterans of four years’ experience.

Allen said the union is willing to compromise and find a “middle ground” on free agency. He said Upshaw again offered to limit salary increases of free agents.

Five months of negotiations have failed to yield a collective bargaining agreement to replace the old five-year deal that expired Aug. 31.

Jones said only limited headway has been made in four minor areas, including the first increase in club fines since 1977 and no change in the current non-discrimination clause.

Union General Counsel Dick Berthelsen said the two sides have reviewed 13 of the 38 articles of the expired contract and have reached tentative agreements in “at least five areas,” which he did not identify. He said an agreement could come within “two or three days.”

Allen charged management is deliberately characterizing the talks in a negative vein to “scare the players into believing there is no hope.

“They don’t want the players to take too much hope from what’s happening,” he said. “Let’s face it, they’re still hopeful that the solidarity of the players will crack. It hasn’t.”

Jones also said management, fed up with strikes every time a contract expires, is now seeking a six-year pact. The two sides had agreed this summer that the duration of the new contract would be three years, paralleling the length of the league’s $1.42-billion television deal. Several owners said earlier this week they wanted a five-year deal.

“That’s very difficult to take seriously,” Allen said. “Yesterday it was five and today it’s six. We better get this thing settled or we’re going to have a 15-year agreement.”

Some 1,600 players walked off the job Sept. 22. Since then, about 140 players have defied the strike and returned to clubs to participate in non-union games, which Allen said the NFLPA has now formally asked management to disallow from standings.