NFL, Players Take Extended Route

The NFL will have four more years of labor tranquillity stretching through the 2007 season after a deal was reached between the league and the NFL Players Assn. to extend the current collective bargaining agreement.

The deal will extend the salary cap through the 2006 season with an uncapped year in 2007 as an incentive for the sides to extend the agreement again. It also will double the monthly pension benefit and provide a new set of minimum salaries based on experience in the league, with a 10-year veteran earning at least $750,000.

The union also will get a graduated increase in its percentage of designated gross revenues, from 63% this season to a high of 65.5% in 2005, then back to 64.5% in 2006. The two sides also agreed to curb cash spending above the salary cap by teams, in the hopes of maintaining the integrity of the cap.

“I think it’s a great day,” said Gene Upshaw, executive director of the players association, who signed off on the agreement with NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. “These things are complicated, they seem to have a life of their own. The major plus is that it ensures labor peace for an extended period of time. It gives us an agreement through the current TV deal, which ends in 2005, and that will help Paul in the next [TV] negotiations.

“It’s a contract that allows us to position our product so that it will continue to grow. Neither side had to give up much. We both tried to look at where we are now and how we can make it even better.”

Since the NFL and its union came to a landmark agreement in 1993 after years of skirmishing and occasional work stoppages, pro football can now claim the longest no-strike streak among the major professional sports leagues, a run of 14 years when the current collective bargaining agreement runs out.

The latest extension revises the minimum salary categories. The rookie minimum will be $225,000 starting in 2002, one-year veterans $300,000, two-year veterans $375,000 and three-year veterans $450,000. Players in their fourth through sixth years will earn a $525,000 minimum. Players in years seven through nine will get $650,000 and 10 and above will earn a minimum of $750,000.

In addition, those minimum contracts at the high end of the scale will be more cap-friendly. A cash pool will be established by the league and union so that, for example, a 10-year player earning $750,000 will only count $450,000 against the salary cap that year.