NFL’s Labor Agreement Not Appreciated by All : Pro football: Gains in salary and freedom for players have been significant, but so has the criticism.

For Joe Cain, the new agreement between the NFL players and owners is as pretty as Lake Washington during a Seattle sunset.

Such is the view from the four-bedroom home bought by Cain after he got a 202% raise by signing with the Chicago Bears.

Joe Cain? If you haven’t heard of him, maybe you’ve seen him.

Five years ago, out of football, he was selling T-shirts on street corners in Compton.

Last season, he was a backup linebacker for the Seattle Seahawks.

Today, his name is on a two-year contract worth $1.3 million.

“Whenever I thought my career was over, I told myself I would never quit until I heard the fat lady sing,” Cain said. “With this new deal, these days she ain’t even thinking about singing.”

*

The new agreement makes Michael Irvin want to scream.

In fact, he did just that while addressing union chief Gene Upshaw during a meeting in Dallas.

Irvin, an All-Pro wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys, was upset because the new agreement will put a cap on the salaries of teammates of such multimillion-dollar stars as Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith.

“Troy will get his, but how will I get mine?” Irvin reportedly shouted at Upshaw before storming out of the locker room.

Upshaw later fired back, “I guess it’s real tough for Irvin, living on $1.25 million a year.”

*

Funny thing about this new NFL labor peace. Since the landmark free-agent settlement was approved by the courts and included in a new labor agreement, there has been no peace.

Moods have changed as quickly as rosters. For every big contract signed, a big ego has been bruised.

The gains in salary and freedom have been significant. But so has the criticism.

Those endorsing the new rules point to Joe Milinichik, large and soft-spoken and suddenly very wealthy.

Before the free-agent agreement was given preliminary approval by Federal Judge David Doty on Feb. 26, Milinichik was an offensive guard making $360,000 a year for the Rams.

Two months later he became a $2.2-million guard for the San Diego Chargers.

“I didn’t realize I was a millionaire until I read it in my hometown paper in Pennsylvania,” Milinichik said, still shaking his head a month after signing the two-year contract. “I still don’t think I realize it.”

Then there is Frank Murtha, a Chicago lawyer-agent for 28 players, most of whom are not so pleased.

Murtha, who has represented the Teamsters, says no self-respecting union would have accepted a settlement that imposes a hard salary cap without flexible free agency.

“I’ve got football people asking me, ‘When do you think the players will realize that they’ve been (taken)?’ ” Murtha said.

*

The only tangible results of the contract can be found in salaries, which favor the endorsers:

--In the first two months after veterans were set free on March 1, 132 unrestricted free agents--those with at least five years’ experience--signed new contracts averaging $1.227 million a season.

Last season, those players averaged $532,000 in salary, meaning the settlement meant a 131% increase for them.

--There have been 25 restricted free agents--those with three or four years of experience--who have signed deals for an average of $935,000, a 214% increase over their previous salaries.

--Eight offensive linemen with expired contracts who were denoted as franchise or transition players forever changed the perception that their position is underrated and underpaid.

They were offered increases that averaged more than $900,000 a season.

--Although figures will not be available until after the season because only 5% of NFL contracts are guaranteed--a big difference from football and basketball--the average NFL salary is expected to increase from $496,000 to about $600,000.

The 20% increase would be the second-largest in the league since the days of the competing United States Football League. This is even with rookies receiving 15-20% less money than last season because of the rookie salary cap.

--Two months after the new agreement, 92 players had changed teams as a result of the new free-agent rules.

“There is going to be a minority of people who disagree with anything you do,” said Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Assn. “But this deal was a good compromise. This begins a brave new world.”

And a scary one, if you ask Junior Seau, the Chargers’ All-Pro linebacker who will make $1.4 million during the next two seasons. That is half of what many free agents of far less ability will make this season.

In fact, Seau’s $600,000 base salary this season equals the signing bonus given fellow Charger linebacker Jerrol Williams, who was acquired as a free agent from the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“The union hasn’t hurt me yet, but it hasn’t done anything for me, either,” Seau said. “There could be a lot of players getting stuck here. I’m just waiting for my day in the sun.”

Those who oppose the seven-year basic agreement, which was recently approved, begin their argument by citing events of Sept. 10, 1992.

That was when an eight-woman Minneapolis jury ruled in favor of eight NFL players in an antitrust suit against the league. The ruling established that the NFL’s Plan B free-agency system was too restrictive.

At that point, critics say, the union could have gone for the NFL’s jugular. Instead, four months later, the league and the union reached an agreement that removed the issue from the courts.

What angered most was that for free agency with strings attached, the players allowed the owners to enjoy fixed costs.

“Hard-liners will say that the players were holding a gun at the owner’s head and then said, ‘Hey, you guys take the gun,’ ” said John Spagnola, former tight end who briefly served as president of the union.

Countered Upshaw: “People have to understand, we couldn’t stay in court forever. If we kept pressing them, the owners would have just gone to Plan C, then Plan D.”

The union’s treasury was also being drained by mounting legal costs. And there was the worry that with one defeat in an appeals court, every gain would have been wiped away.

“For us, it was a single-elimination tournament,” Upshaw said. “One loss, and we’re done. The owners didn’t face that problem.”

But since then, the settlement has been questioned from both sides.

“There is no secret . . . that I do not think it is a good deal,” said Norman Braman, Philadelphia Eagle owner whose objections to the settlement were thrown out of court. “We are going into uncharted waters here. Nobody knows what is going to happen, but everybody thinks they could have done better.”

Irvin, of the Cowboys, told reporters: “(The union) keep telling us to look at what they got us here. They aren’t telling us what they didn’t get.”

Said Dan Rooney, owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers: “The fact that some players and owners don’t like it, maybe that is an indication that it’s good.”

*

Now that the league has watched it work, here’s a look at the two main facets of pro football’s new deal:

Perception: All players will be thrilled with free agency, even the best players, who will be well compensated for their inability to move.

Reality: Many of the best players are furious.

Leslie O’Neal of the Chargers is still pursuing an appeal of the original settlement.

Wilber Marshall of the Washington Redskins has threatened to sit out the season if a trade to the Houston Oilers is not completed.

The agent for Paul Gruber of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is comparing his client’s employer to a certain champagne music-maker.

“Sure, the Bucs had a chance to trade him, but they played Lawrence Welk with the rest of the league,” Ralph Cindrich said. “When it came time to ask for draft picks, they said, ‘Give us a one-a, and a two-a, and a one-a.’ ”

Except for Reggie White and Tim McDonald, who were able to become free agents because they were named plaintiffs in the original lawsuit, the eight other “franchise” players grew angry when they saw what was happening to the rest of the league.

Sure, the franchise players were guaranteed salaries at the average of the top five players at their position. But that average was calculated on the basis of the 1992 season.

According to the original settlement, those players could not benefit from the increased averages after the March and April bonanza.

“In some cases, that average figure went up $500,000,” said Leigh Steinberg, agent for franchise players Duane Bickett of the Indianapolis Colts and Steve Young of the San Francisco 49ers.

The owners finally relented and allowed teams to pay based on contracts signed through May 6. The teams still insisted on making offers based on last year’s salaries, making franchise players free agents for a month, from June 15 to July 15.

But any team signing those players would have to forfeit two first-round draft picks. That was the rule under the old system, which was so repressive that under it, only one player, Marshall, changed teams in the last decade.

“We were all worried this would happen,” said Steinberg, who will probably watch Young, the league’s most valuable player, go untouched and have to re-sign with the 49ers.

The system seems just as inhibiting for “transition players” without contracts. Even though their present teams must match any offer if they want to keep them, other teams seem unwilling to get into a bidding war.

Only two transition players have changed teams. And one, offensive tackle Will Wolford, caused such a fuss when he moved from Buffalo to Indianapolis that the owners added another rule change to the final agreement.

A team now has to match only the salary and bonuses on the offer sheet, and not stipulations that the player be the highest-paid member of the team. Under those conditions, Wolford would not have moved.

“What you have is an idiosyncratic system where only players not considered valuable enough to be franchise or transition players can luck into the gold rush,” Steinberg said.

O’Neal and several dozen other players have figured that the only solution is to appeal to become unrestricted free agents, as were White and McDonald.

O’Neal was denied that right because his name was on different lawsuits filed in courts other than in Minneapolis, where the final ruling was made.

“While these appeals are being made, a lot of the money that will be distributed to the players (about $115 million) is being held up in the courts,” said Doug Allen, assistant executive director of the NFLPA. “So those players are keeping their teammates from getting what they are owed.”

Said Don Howarth, a Los Angeles lawyer representing O’Neal: “We’re not asking that any money be held up. The NFL is holding up my guys. You have somebody from the union call me and I will tell him what they can do.”

*

Perception: The salary cap refers to money spent only on veterans’ salaries.

Reality: The veterans will be lucky to see 85% of that cap.

League sources estimate that few players realize that an average of $4 million a team will be subtracted from each season’s salary cap for player benefits, and about $2 million for rookies.

The cap, which will go into effect next season, will likely be around $38 million per team after the owners sweetened the pot by signing a $41-million Super Bowl deal with NBC.

The actual figure for veterans, who hoped to benefit the most from this agreement, will be more like $31 million.

That figure is less than five teams paid players last season.

To make matters worse for the veterans, football will have a hard cap. Unlike pro basketball’s soft cap, it will not allow a team to exceed the cap by signing its own players.

However, the union countered that by winning agreement on a hard salary basement.

During the first capped year, salaries cannot exceed 64% of designated revenues, but they also cannot fall below 58% of those revenues.

Under that system, 10 teams will have to spend more money on players than they spent last year. The Pittsburgh Steelers, for instance, will have to increase their payroll by $7 million.

“I’m not sure a lot of our players know about a lot of this stuff, especially the benefits part,” Plummer said. “Because of the average age in our sport (less than 26), the guys just go along with (Upshaw).

“Whatever he says, goes.”

Officials say the new rules are already beginning to turn the NFL into a bunch of youngsters surrounding a few good men.

“The NFL will become a South American country,” said Dick Steinberg, general manager of the New York Jets. “There will be a wealthy class and a lower class.”

Although such esteemed general managers as Ron Wolf of the Green Bay Packers dismiss the idea as “a bunch of malarkey,” there are already signs that teams will begin preparing for the salary cap this season.

“I think any team that does not anticipate a cap being in place next season is in deep trouble,” said Pat Bowlen, owner of the Denver Broncos. “If you don’t plan now, you will end up being forced to waive or trade one or two key stars next July.”

Said the Jets’ Steinberg: “I’ve already told some veterans, ‘If you want to play this year, you will have to play for less money.’ Some guys have already taken pay cuts.”

Bobby Beathard, Charger general manager, said that as many as eight of the team’s nine draft picks could make the team in hopes of preparing them to become low-paid backups next season.

“I think a lot of teams will be doing that,” Beathard said. “The only thing that would hurt you is if you had a lot of injuries. But that is why we have the (expanded) 53-man roster.”

Countered Allen: “It is not true that this system would harm the veterans on the bubble. Maybe they wouldn’t fit on a couple of teams with high payrolls, but there would be many other places for them to play.”

Not that the rookies are happy, either.

“It doesn’t seem fair that we work all of those years and finally, when we get our chance at the NFL, they make new rules,” said Rick Mirer, former Notre Dame quarterback who was picked by the Seattle Seahawks as the No. 2 overall selection in the draft.

*

Perception: The contract was only about money.

Reality: It is also about jobs, football cards, and taking care of the disabled.

Because of the deal, the NFL will go ahead with plans to expand by two teams, the favored sites being Baltimore and St. Louis. That represents 116 new playing jobs beginning in the 1995 season.

Also because of the deal, which ended the recent licensing feud between the owners and the union, all football memorabilia can have images of any player.

When the owners began signing away the league’s stars from the NFLPA for licensing purposes last year, the football memorabilia market fell because of confusion over which players belonged to whom. Even a pack of football cards could not contain players from both groups.

The owners have since returned those rights, which could cost Irvin as much as $200,000, another reason he was angry.

The deal also increases the amount of money paid annually to totally disabled players, such as Mike Utley and Darryl Stingley, from $48,000 a year to $100,000, increasing to $200,000 by the end of the contract.

“This deal is good for everyone,” Rooney said. “We finally have a true partnership with the players. Their interest is now the good of the game.”

And if nothing else, for the good of Joe Cain.

Five years ago, this former Compton High star was cut on the final day of training camp by the Minnesota Vikings.

After spending a year working for his sister’s T-shirt silk screen business and mowing lawns, he was signed by the Seahawks. He never became a full-time starter, but he was impressive enough to be flown to Chicago two months ago during the first week of the free-agent signing period.

“I just got to town, I’m laying on my hotel bed the night before I was going to meet with the Bears, when my agent (Frank Bauer) gives me a call,” Cain said. “He said, ‘I’ve got a number for you.’ I couldn’t believe it. The Bears already had the contract ready.”

His best friend, Empry Young, remembers his feelings at hearing the phrase million dollars.

They are the feelings shared by many others in the league as they have watched this new agreement unfold.

Whether they agree with it or not.

“I was blown away,” Young said.

Big Gainers

Changes in player salaries for unrestricted free agents (players who have completed five seasons) and restricted free agents (completed four seasons) for the first two months of the NFL’s new labor agreement. Source for the figures is NFL Players Assn. UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS

Players’ Average Salaries Position No. 1992 1993 Change Defensive backs 26 $441,000 $1,036,000 135% Defensive linemen 22 $505,000 $1,200,000 143% Linebackers 17 $530,000 $1,100,000 108% Offensive linemen 26 $472,000 $1,200,000 150% Punters 2 $333,000 $609,000 83% Quarterbacks 16 $817,000 $1,800,000 121% Running backs 4 $584,000 $1,200,000 112% Tight ends 4 $408,000 $1,550,000 282% Wide receivers 15 $576,000 $1,150,000 100% Total 132 $532,000 $1,227,000 131%

RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS

Players’ Average Salaries Position No. 1992 1993 Change Defensive backs 7 $310,000 $734,000 137% Defensive linemen 9 $378,000 $1,000,000 173% Linebackers 2 $177,000 $1,175,000 564% Offensive linemen 5 $233,000 $776,000 233% Quarterbacks 3 $255,000 $1,450,000 472% Running backs 4 $318,000 $960,000 202% Tight ends 1 $240,000 $1,033,000 330% Wide Receivers 4 $264,000 $711,000 169% Total 35 $298,000 $935,000 214%