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NFL Column: Owners, Players Jockeying For An Icy Labor Faceoff

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By IRA KAUFMAN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 25, 2008

TAMPA - In three years, just about the moment Jake Plummer emerges from the Idaho foothills sporting a frayed Bucs jersey, NFL facilities may be deserted.

Instead of coaches and players participating in OTA sessions, football fields could be empty by the spring of 2011.

While Commissioner Roger Goodell wants you to know you are entitled to three more uninterrupted seasons of America's most popular sport, there are no guarantees beyond the 2011 Super Bowl - slated for the mother ship Jerry Jones is overseeing in Big D. That stands for Doomsday.

It's easy to argue there's plenty of time to avoid a lockout that would both frustrate NFL fans and tarnish the legacy of Goodell's predecessor.

It was Paul Tagliabue who cajoled 30 owners to pass the current labor agreement by an overwhelming margin only 26 months ago.

After the Bengals and Bills cast the only dissenting ballots, Buffalo owner Ralph Wilson admitted he wasn't going to vote for a CBA he couldn't understand. Given his nearly 50 years in the business, Wilson was criticized by some as an old-school mogul who couldn't adjust to changing times.

Now, he looks like a visionary.

By voting unanimously to end the labor pact two years early, NFL owners are positioned to take their ball and go home in 2011.

Maybe they think they can break the union.

Maybe they think public support will be on management's side. Maybe they think they are the game.

"We're completely unified," vows Bucs defensive end Kevin Carter, a member of the NFL Players Association's executive committee. "We have total confidence in NFLPA head Gene Upshaw. The man has given 25 years of his life to the union and everything we've ever brought to him, he's gotten it done."

Despite the profits spilling over their $8 billion industry, owners and players are now engaged in an icy faceoff that threatens to extend indefinitely.

"I think our fans should focus on enjoying NFL football," Goodell says. "They have got that for the next three seasons at a minimum."

The line of scrimmage, of course, is the bottom line.

Fans tend to sympathize with management during sports labor disputes, often labeling players as greedy, but this one has a different feel.

While NFL players are content with business as usual, owners have done a poor job articulating their disenchantment with the current pact.

Beyond the absurdity of some rookie contracts, management has failed to detail gripes that might generate support from fans coping with real economic distress.

"In this whole equation, I just want the game to be preserved," Carter said. "No one wants to see what happened in basketball and hockey happen to football. We have wonderful parity. The any given Sunday cliche has never been more true than it is now. It's great.

"So if you're going to do something - change the way revenues are split, rookie salaries or whatever - don't tamper too much with the product on Sunday because the fans deserve the product on Sunday. And you know what? What drives the game are fan support and players. Without those two things, you've got nothing."

You think the Democratic race to pick a presidential nominee has gotten ugly?

Hillary and Barack will be viewed as cordial competitors once the NFL rhetoric starts flowing.

Goodell is well paid to represent the ruling class while Upshaw earns a fat check to push the NFLPA agenda.

Carter says Upshaw's constituents stand as one. We know the owners are demanding major changes.

This rift has a real chance to expand into a chasm in the next three years.

And the 89-year-old Wilson has every right to look his fellow owners in the eye and say I told you so.

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