NFL Labor Strife? Get Ready to Rumble

Sports Commentary

In a year and a half as the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell already has been challenged by some issues he never could have expected - most notably Michael Vick's dog-fighting ring and Bill Belichick's Spygate caper.

It turns out, however, those were only the warmup for the main event, which figures to begin heating up in the hallways of a luxury resort at West Palm Beach, Fla., next week.

Officially, you won't find "war with the players" anywhere on the agenda for the league's annual meeting. But the looming fight really will be the elephant in the room as owners discuss more benign topics, such as increasing vigilance against tampering and spying.

Because it comes down to money. It always comes down to money.

Former commissioner Paul Tagliabue's greatest achievement in 17 years as commissioner was making gobs of money for the owners while keeping peace with the players through a series of collective bargaining agreements (CBA).

Seventeen years of labor peace in today's environment was an accomplishment. But it's turning out that accomplishment came at a price.

Quite simply, many owners believe the players are getting too big a slice of the pie. A couple of years ago, it was only the smaller-market, lower-revenue owners, like Buffalo's Ralph Wilson and Cincinnati's Mike Brown, who voted against the last CBA extension because they felt it unfair they essentially had to match the big-market payrolls while collecting less revenue.

Since then, however, even some of the richer teams have joined the chorus, with Denver's Pat Bowlen and New England's Robert Kraft the most surprising voices added to the mix.

The catalyst was a 1996 extension of the CBA, the last significant act of Tagliabue's reign, in which the pool of money used to figure the salary cap was expanded significantly. As a result, the cap has grown much larger; by 2009, the increase is expected to be more than 40 percent over four years.

The agreement runs through 2012, with a caveat. Either side can opt out early, and it takes just nine votes among the 32 owners for them to do that. Based on what owners are saying, both on and off the record, it appears a slam dunk the nine votes will be there this fall.

The opt-out deadline is in November. On the surface, it won't affect the 2008 season or, for that matter, the 2009 season. But if the owners opt out, the salary cap expires after 2009 and, with it, the salary cap minimum, too.

The 2010 season would be an uncapped year. And the CBA would expire after the 2010 season, leading to the widespread expectation of a lockout by the owners, or a union de-certification by the players, before the 2011 season.

That's a long way off, of course, and much can happen between now and then. But the era of good feelings generated by Tagliabue, Goodell and union chief Gene Upshaw clearly appears to have evaporated.

Some background:

Those cap increases aren't much of a problem for teams like the Cowboys and Redskins, who are swimming in money generated by their stadiums, advertising and sponsorship. But they are a problem for teams like the Bills, Bengals and Jaguars, among others.

It's hard to believe they are a problem for teams like the Broncos and Patriots, who have huge revenue streams in new stadiums. But Bowlen recently fired eight front-office employees in what could be seen as a warning shot to the players. The eight employees, combined, probably earned less than a backup tight end, so it's hard to see their dismissals making a huge impact on the Broncos' bottom line, but the message was clear: times are tough.

The NFL also has sought to dismiss David Doty, the Minneapolis judge who has overseen disputes between the players and the owners for years, claiming he is biased in favor of the players. Whether he is or is not biased, Doty generally has sided with the players in most of the cases he has judged. The league also has reduced, by $30 million per team, the allowed debt limits, a move the players see as an attempt to put a damper on signing bonuses.

In an industry racing headlong toward $10 billion a year in revenue, it might seem odd that the owners and the employees can't find a reasonable way to continue to share the gravy. But another way of looking at this looming dispute is that nearly two decades of labor peace in today's sports/economic environment were an aberration, so perhaps none of us should be surprised the owners and players may be headed for another fight.

Just remember the old saw. It's always about the money.

Ira Miller is an award-winning sportswriter who has covered the National Football league for three decades and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame Selection Committee. He is the national columnist for The Sports Xchange and his blog can be viewed at ">www.mysportspage.com.