NFL Is Expected to Suspend Plan B : Free agency: Tagliabue hopes the decision will help settle dispute with players.

With the NFL bracing for a monumental antitrust court case that could forever change the economics of the game, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue announced Friday that he probably will suspend, for a month, the Plan B system that allowed limited free agency for selected players during the last three seasons.

Tagliabue, speaking at his annual Super Bowl news conference, said a decision on Plan B will be announced next week, but added that only minor details need to be worked out.

Tagliabue hopes the decision will give the NFL additional time to settle a dispute with its players before the Freeman McNeil case goes to court in Minneapolis sometime next spring.

“We’re working intensively on a settlement,” Tagliabue said. “By suspending Plan B for a month (from Feb. 1 to March 1), we think we can set up a deadline and a target that will have a positive effect on both sides.”

The players have been without a collective bargaining agreement since 1987. In the union’s previous agreement, signed in 1982, the players bargained away unrestricted free agency for other benefits.

After the agreement expired, the NFL Players Assn. sued for unrestricted free agency, but the courts ruled the union was bound to the previous agreement so long as it was a certified bargaining agent for the players.

The NFLPA countered by disbanding as a union and encouraged its players to file individual lawsuits against their teams and the league.

That resulted in the McNeil suit, which has gained momentum through the courts and no doubt has pressured the league to seriously consider a settlement rather than risk losing a court decision.

Anticipating the impending lawsuits, the NFL implemented Plan B in 1989 to show the courts that, at least in part, the league was working toward free agency for its players.

Teams were allowed to protect 37 players on their rosters after each season. The unprotected players, mostly backups or aging veterans with big contracts, were allowed to negotiate with any team from Feb. 1 through April 1.

Critics of the system said that the least talented players were rewarded while the most talented were bound to their teams indefinitely.

Jim Quinn, a New York attorney hired by the NFLPA to represent McNeil, said he didn’t know if there could be a settlement before March 1.

“That falls into the category of ‘Anything is possible,’ ” he said.

“There are no serious proposals on the table. We’re looking for a trial date, and we intend to go to trial. If they give us meaningful free agency, that could be a settlement point.”

David Doty, the U.S. District Court judge who will hear the McNeil case, is expected to set a trial date Feb. 14.

The NFL is proposing a settlement that would, in part, include a salary cap for players and free agency for veterans after an unspecified number of years in the league. That number is a major point of contention.

Quinn reiterated that a proposed wage scale for rookies and second-year players is not negotiable.

“Never,” Quinn said. “I would never agree to anything that included a wage scale.”

Doug Allen, the NFLPA’s assistant executive director, said the union was not involved in Tagliabue’s decision to suspend Plan B, a system the NFLPA has opposed from the outset.

Allen also said he was unaware that a settlement was near.

“It is our intention to see this trial happen,” Allen said. “If the owners think they have a better way to solve it, the burden is on the owners. . . . We’re focused on a trial and seeing it happen as expeditiously as possible and seeing the jury rule on this owner misconduct and violation of the antitrust laws.”

Tagliabue said that suspending Plan B also would give the eight new head coaches more time to evaluate their personnel.

“The teams, including the teams with eight new coaches, would not have to go forward right now and designate players as unprotected players,” Tagliabue said. “We wouldn’t have to start, in effect, scrambling an egg that might later have to be unscrambled. If we have until March 1 to get something done, that could have a salutary effect on the intensity of the discussions.”

Other topics discussed by Tagliabue:

--Tagliabue said that the league will not change the nicknames of the Kansas City Chiefs or the Washington Redskins, even though they are offensive to some American Indian groups, one of which is conducting protests at the Super Bowl this week.

“These team names, whether it’s in the NFL or major league baseball, or other organized sports, do not convey a demeaning meaning,” Tagliabue said. “They have acquired, in our view, a special and unique meaning affiliate to sports.”

--Tagliabue said that there would not be mandatory AIDS testing in the league in light of former Laker star Magic Johnson’s disclosure that he has tested positive for HIV.

“The medical evidence is that there is an infinitesimal risk of transmitting HIV through contact sports,” he said. “One doctor said recently said it was less than the risk of being paralyzed by running into the goal posts. I think that we can’t overreact. I don’t think we should do something that would, frankly, cause hysteria in this area, with millions of kids playing contact. They can’t all be tested and there’s no reason to be tested.”

Tagliabue termed “regrettable,” recent reports that the Australian basketball team might boycott the Olympics if Johnson is allowed to participate in the Games.

--Tagliabue said that he is in favor of retaining instant replay, with modifications.

“I think instant replay adds a valuable dimension to officiating,” Tagliabue said. “I also think that it imposes a price. It interrupts the momentum of the game, sometimes at a critical juncture. The Competition Committee will look at these issues, study them, make a report to the membership in March and see whether they’ll continue it or not.”