Plan B Back on Schedule for Feb. 1

The NFL switched gears Monday, announcing that the Plan B free-agent period will begin as usual on Feb. 1.

Friday, in his annual state-of-the-game address, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said the league would delay Plan B until March 1 to give the NFL and the NFL Players Assn. additional time to negotiate a settlement to their ongoing court battles.

But Monday, in a prepared statement, the NFL said Tagliabue “decided the advantages of a postponement were outweighed by the disadvantages of a delay from normal procedures.”

A league source Monday said that Tagliabue hoped to receive some sort of positive signal from the players’ association in return for delaying Plan B, but got none, which killed the proposal.