Accord Still Elusive Among NFL Owners, Players : Pro football: Problems remain with transition into a free-agency system, draft and compensation for lost players.

Labor peace in the NFL remained out of reach on Tuesday, like a wet football that both sides were diving for but neither could grasp.

The two sides couldn’t even agree how close they were after a day of meetings.

“A very productive session,” said Jim Quinn, the chief negotiator for the players, who said his side had gone as far as it could to end the five-year stalemate that began after the unsuccessful players strike in 1987.

“We’re not there yet,” said Dan Rooney, president of the Pittsburgh Steelers and chairman of the owners’ negotiating committee.

The proposal, agreed upon a week ago, includes the NFL’s first unrestricted free agency and its first salary cap. Players would get free agency after four, five or six years and teams would be allowed to protect at least one player.

The two sides reached what they called “the framework” for that agreement last Wednesday.

But they seemed on Tuesday to be having difficulty in filling in the substance.

While the players insisted they had proposed all they could and Quinn said “there were sacrifices on both sides,” the owners didn’t seem to agree.

Rooney said there were up to seven issues to be resolved, and Joe Browne, NFL vice president for communications, put the number at six. Asked if there would be agreement after all 28 owners meet today, Rooney replied, “No, I don’t think so.”

Browne said the differences included:

--The transition phase into free agency, which would start next Feb. 1.

--How many years the draft, which will be cut from 12 rounds to seven, will exist.

--How to deal with teams that might need to replace a large number of free agents lost.

Still, a framework remained to put before U.S. District Court Judge David Doty in Minneapolis, who will have final say on the agreement.

Doty presided last summer at the suit in which a jury threw out the NFL’s limited Plan B free agency system. He also must rule on motions in a suit brought by Philadelphia’s Reggie White on behalf of the 600 players who will become free agents Feb. 1.

According to various sources, there appeared to be three solid votes for the contract among the seven members of the committee--Rooney, Wellington Mara of the New York Giants and Patrick Bowlen of Denver. The most adamant opponent appeared to be Al Davis of the Raiders, with the three other members--Mike Brown of Cincinnati, John Kent Cooke of Washington and John Shaw of the Rams--in the middle.