Gene Upshaw, head of the National Football...

Gene Upshaw, head of the National Football League Players’ union, said club owners proposed--then withdrew--a proposal that would have made players unrestricted free agents after 7 years in the league.

Upshaw said the owners offered the system during a negotiating session Super Bowl Sunday, but when the union made a counterproposal the same day, management “reneged on what they said.”

Jack Donlan, Upshaw’s Management Council counterpart, said the statement “was an inaccurate description of what happened at the meeting.”