NFL PLAYERS’ STRIKE: THE AFTERMATH : Union Surrenders a Day Late, Dollars Short : Strikers Go Back, but Owners Won’t Let Them Play This Week

Gene Upshaw, his union’s solidarity falling apart around him, Thursday threw in the towel on the National Football League players’ strike and took his case for free agency to court.

“It was unfair to the players to continue to sacrifice anymore,” Upshaw said after player representatives from all 28 teams voted to end the strike that was growing less popular among the players by the day.

A total of 222 players had defected by the time the league’s fifth player strike in 20 years died on its 24th day. In that time, the players gained nothing, leaving all issues on the bargaining table, and the 1,363 who stayed out the whole time--most for the sake of solidarity rather than the issues--lost one-fourth of their annual salaries.

Management also administered one final blow. When the strikers returned en masse Thursday, they were told that they couldn’t play and be paid for this weekend’s games because they missed the deadline for reporting at 10 a.m., PDT, Wednesday.

So by sundown, almost all the strikers were back where they started the day--on the street.

Those who chose to stay and practice apart from the non-union teams were to be paid training camp rates of $700 a week for veterans and $450 for rookies, plus $38 daily meal money.

It wasn’t much to settle for, but it was all they were going to get.

“The thing was falling apart,” said Ricky Hunley, player representative of the Denver Broncos. “It was like being in a war and losing your bullets. There was nothing left to fight with. The bottom was falling out of the situation.”

Now the union will pursue its aims in a federal antitrust suit filed against the league in Minneapolis. The same court threw out the NFL compensation system 12 years ago, but the union surrendered it again in exchange for other considerations in 1977.

Upshaw, a former Raider offensive lineman who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year, bore the brunt of the pressure of the strike.

When it was over, he said: “The owners have refused to deal fairly with the players and have abused their monopoly powers to the extreme detriment of the players.”

The suit asks that the court throw out the college draft as well as the league’s system of free-agent compensation and right of first refusal for teams threatened with losing players. It also asks that the court void all player contracts signed after Sept. 16, 1987, most of which are the contracts with the replacement players.

“We tried bargaining, now we’ll let the courts decide,” Upshaw said.

The NFL Management Council’s executive committee said, in a statement, that it will have no comment until it has read the suit.

Upshaw’s statement wasn’t issued until five hours after teams started reporting, amid chaos and confusion, in city after city.

“We sent the players back,” Upshaw said. “They are ready to play, they want to play.”

But when they reported and were told they couldn’t play or be paid, most turned around and left. Three teams--the Minnesota Vikings, New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers--apparently got the word and didn’t report at all.

No deadline has been set for next week, and nothing was said about roster limits when coaches find themselves with two squads on their hands.

“Those are all questions that have to be resolved,” said Peter Ruocco, a spokesman for the Management Council.

The owners insisted that veterans reporting Thursday, after more than three weeks off the field, would be running too great a risk of injury if they played Sunday. General Manager Jim Finks of the New Orleans Saints said the owners also were wary that without a formal agreement, regulars would go on strike again as soon as replacement players were let go.

“We have to report to show them we’re back,” said 49er player representative Keith Fahnhorst, who accused the Management Council of wanting “to rub our noses in it” by not paying the players or allowing them to play. “If they don’t pay us, there might be some legal recourse.”

The last talks were held Thursday morning among Upshaw, Jack Donlan, management’s chief negotiator, and Commissioner Pete Rozelle.

But those negotiations broke off over the proposed extension of the 1982 contract. The union wanted it to expire Feb. 1, but the owners wanted a June 16 expiration date, which would effectively have extended it through the 1988 season. The Feb. 1 date is the expiration date for individual player contracts; June 15 is the deadline for players to receive offers from new teams.

Marvin Miller, former executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Assn., apparently was one of those who advised the NFL Players Assn. to send its striking players back to their teams and to file an antitrust suit against the league.

While Upshaw denied any contact with him, Miller said Thursday night that he had received telephone calls in the last few days from unidentified union officials “just asking my general view of what I thought their options were.”

He said he advised them that if the strike was about to collapse, then the union’s best alternative would be to work without a contract and file suit.

“I told them,” Miller said, “there’s no agreement worth anything that they’ll give you. That being so, the option is easy, you don’t want any agreement so you can go to court.”

Early Thursday, confusion reigned.

In Seattle, a bus carrying replacement players was at first turned away.

In Philadelphia, the equipment of the non-union players was moved to another dressing room to make room for the real Eagles.

In Foxboro, Mass., a memo written by New England Coach Raymond Berry and posted at Sullivan Stadium told players that he did not want them “coming in to the part of the building where we are preparing the (non-union) team to play Houston this week.”

In Cincinnati, Bengal player representative Cris Collinsworth, who said last week that the players were preparing to play the Cleveland Browns, disclosed that Coach Sam Wyche, reading that report, sent the strikers his game plan Tuesday. The team sent it back, however.

“A lot of things were said when (the messenger) brought it out,” Collinsworth said. “We took a vote and decided to send it back. I took it back.”

In Kansas City, several players went downstairs to the locker room to collect mail and deliver a few insults at replacement players.

“It’s over, scabs, get out of here,” one Chief was heard to say.

Coaches, however, instructed replacement players to return to the practice field.

The Miami Dolphins’ regulars returned to camp Thursday, then walked out again when told they were ineligible for this Sunday’s game.

“The players would rather play the game,” player representative Willam Judson said. “We’re trying to give the fans what they want to see--the real football players--but we’re being rejected. The owners are playing hardball with us.”

Quarterback Dan Marino said: “We’re ready to work. They don’t want us to work.”

Eagle player representative John Spagnola said: “Obviously, we didn’t think (management’s rejection) was fair. We did come back as a team.”

At Indianapolis, Colt General Manager Jim Irsay said: “I don’t think it should be looked upon as a hard-line stance. We wish we had all our players with us to go play the Steelers . . . but the deadline was set. I told the guys I wish this was Wednesday morning instead of Thursday.”

In Atlanta, Mike Kenn, an offensive tackle with the striking Falcons and a union vice president, said: “We offered our services to play Sunday. They said they would not pay us, so basically that’s a lockout. So we went back out.”

About 40 members of the Super Bowl champion New York Giants arrived at the team’s executive offices at Giants Stadium and found General Manager George Young waiting for them at the door.

As the players, who arrived in separate cars, began walking toward the offices, one of them shouted, “George, we’re back,” drawing laughter from teammates and reporters who stood by watching.

Young shook hands with player representative George Martin, and the two then went into the executive offices to talk for about 30 minutes. The other players sat on a grassy knoll outside.

When Martin emerged, he took the players away from about two dozen reporters to an adjacent parking lot and spoke with them for about 15 minutes. When the meeting broke up, the players got back into their cars and left the stadium.

“I had a meeting with George,” Martin said. “We could not accept those conditions.”

One owner, Pat Bowlen in Denver, indicated that he might pay his returning players, anyway, fulfilling a promise. “That’s between me and my players,” he said.

In New Orleans, there were some shouted exchanges. Striking quarterback Bobby Hebert threatened to avoid throwing passes to wide receiver Eric Martin, who crossed the picket line earlier.

THE KEY POINTS

The Strike: It ends after 23 days due to a lack of progress at the bargaining table and a lack of resolve among the players, as reflected by defections.

The Union: Players return without a new contract, and the union is suing the NFL for free agency and abolition of the annual college draft.

The Players: Those who didn’t report until Thursday, when the strike collapsed, won’t be eligible to play this weekend or receive their regular pay this week. The deadline to report was Wednesday at 10 a.m., PDT. Players who are not eligible to play this weekend may practice and receive standard per diem of $700 per week for veterans and $450 for rookies, plus $38 daily meal money. Most of those players decided to stay away until next week.

The Games: They will be played with mainly replacement players for the third week and will count in the standings.