NFL PLAYERS STRIKE: DAY 17 : NFL Management, Union Talk Into the Night

Negotiators for NFL owners and players bargained into the morning today , with the union saying the 17-day walkout could be over this weekend but management citing little progress.

The NFL Players Assn. and NFL Management Council met for eight hours in suburban Tysons Corner, Va., Thursday and returned shortly before midnight with plans for a marathon session. The players’ demand for free agency, the major stumbling block, was one of the key issues discussed.

Union Executive Director Gene Upshaw and Management Council Executive Director Jack Donlan led the bargaining teams. The two sides met for the third consecutive day, the longest continuous sessions since talks began April 20.

Union Assistant Executive Director Doug Allen said the talks focused heavily on free agency and severance pay. He held out hope players could be back on the field for Sunday’s games provided an agreement were reached by mid-day Friday.

“We’ve gotten about two-thirds of the way through the document,” he said. Union General Counsel Dick Berthelsen said an agreement could come within “two or three days.”

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.”

Jones said the players had not abandoned 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 five-year deal that expired Aug. 31.

Jones said only limited headway has been made in four minor areas: the first increase in club fines since 1977, the non-discrimnation clause, the contract governing agreement and retention of benefits. Allen said a fifth area of agreement was the union security clause.

Allen charged management was deliberately characterizing the talks in a negative way 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.”

Jones also said management--distressed over 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.

Jones said the league was firm in keeping the games official.