Months of saber-rattling and posturing about the NFL's murky labor situation coalesced at the site of Super Bowl XLV on Friday when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell made clear the threat of a work stoppage that could wipe out games from the 2011 schedule is very real.
By Kirby Lee, US Presswire
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spoke Friday at a news conference in Dallas in advance of Sunday's Super Bowl.
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By Kirby Lee, US Presswire
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell spoke Friday at a news conference in Dallas in advance of Sunday's Super Bowl.
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A deal must be done in the next four weeks, Goodell said, to avoid a situation that could ultimately result in the owners locking the players out.
The current labor agreement expires on March 3, and Goodell made clear that too little progress has been made in the negotiations to this point and the sides remain far apart on a new deal. He said owners have not yet decided to forge a lockout, but added that many options remain on the table if March 4 arrives with no new deal.
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"At that point in time if we're not successful, I'm sure a lot of steps are going to be taken," Goodell said. "The window of opportunity is on the next few weeks to get an agreement that works for everyone."
His chief lieutenant in the negotiations, NFL general counsel Jeff Pash, added the NFL will be ready to act on March 4 if major progress in the negotiations doesn't materialize.
"I would think if we're not significantly closer than we are today," Pash said, "then you probably would be looking at taking some action. Both sides would take some action.
"The union's prepared to decertify, run into court try to get (federal) Judge (David) Doty to issue some kind of order. So I think both sides have to regard (March 4) as a very serious date to try to get something accomplished."
Goodell's remarks in his annual pre-Super Bowl address added to a week of intense rhetoric from both the owners and the Players Association. The sides disagree on how to split the billions of dollars in revenue the league generates.
Goodell added to the disagreement on Friday, one day after union leader DeMaurice Smith insisted that it's an "undeniable fact" that the share of all revenue that's gone to players since the last CBA was signed in 2006 has gone down.
He was asked how to reconcile the union's stance with the NFL's position that most of the new revenue since that deal has gone to the players.
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"I think one is a fact and one isn't," Goodell said. "If you want to deal in facts, the president of the union (Kevin Mawae) just in the last week said that the players got a great deal in 2006, and that clearly is indicating that the pendulum has shifted too far in one direction."
New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft expressed optimism that there is still a good opportunity to make a deal with the players' union to avoid a work stoppage that could bring a backlash from fans and damage the NFL's unprecedented popularity.
Kraft said the deal could be done "in a week" if the stakeholders put aside the lawyers, lobbyists and public relations experts who thus far have often dominated the framing of the CBA news.
"Put them in the background. Lawyers are dealbreakers, not deal-makers," Kraft said.
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Goodell on Friday reiterated his stance that the NFL could suffer serious financial losses with its sponsors and business partners if it enters a work stoppage in March. Kraft said he's heard that message directly from companies the NFL works with.
"We have figured out that the league and the players together, if we had a lockout between now and August we would lose $1 billion collectively," Kraft said. "We know of two national, wonderful companies who have said if there's a lockout, they're walking from the league."
On Thursday, the NFLPA reiterated that it needs the owners to provide more details about their costs structures in order for the negotiations to proceed. Said Mawae, "All we ask for is financial transparency and justification."
But Goodell rejected that as a bargaining tactic.
"We have to get beyond this negotiating ploy of opening the books, because that's all it is," Goodell said. "The players have more than sufficient information to understand why the economics of this deal do not work."
Sports business analyst Marc Ganis said that while Goodell and the owners may see the early March deadline as a critical date, there haven't been signs yet that the union sees it the same way.
The union, he said, has done a more effective job of informing its membership that they can't move forward in negotiations without seeing the owners' complete financial records.
And if the players and the union don't see early March as a serious deadline, Ganis said, "it's going to be very difficult to get the kinds of modifications to the CBA that the owners are insisting on."
Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco— representing his self-inspired OCNN news agency and, he said, all NFL players — questioned Goodell at his address. "What is the real timetable for getting it done?" Ochocinco asked.
"Because ... you guys are somewhat preparing for a lockout."
Again, Goodell acknowledged that the lockout is an option in response and put the onus on the sides to achieve meaningful negotiations fast.
"Otherwise, uncertainty is going to seep into all of our operations and make it harder for everyone," he said.
One of the tenets of the NFL's bargaining proposals is to adjust the schedule to turn two of the four preseason games into regular-season contests and create an 18-game slate. Despite an AP poll that showed just lukewarm public support for such a change, Goodell said the league is committed to two more regular-season games as part of its strategy to increase revenue.
The players union has resisted adding games and cited the potential effects they would have on player injury rates.
Would the 18-game schedule be a dealbreaker for owners?
"There are no dealbreakers," he said. "We need to sit down and have healthy negotiations.
"That's our entire focus. How do we make the game better? Status quo is not acceptable."
The NFL and NFLPA agreed to a bargaining session on Saturday, the first formal session since November. And Goodell said that two more meetings were planned for next week, with more to follow later in the month.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said on Tuesday that creating "angst" and "tension" was key to reaching a new deal. And Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank said the short amount of time left on the CBA could be a boon to the talks.
"As with every negotiation, as you get closer to the deadline the pace tends to quicken," Blank said. "I think you're hearing that from both sides now. There is a great sense of urgency."
Union leaders repeatedly referred to the interest of NFL fans during their remarks on Thursday. The NFL enjoyed its most-watched season ever this year — with 207.7 million unique viewers — with an average of 17.9 million TV viewers watching each game, the most since 1989.
Kraft agreed that the cost of alienating those fans is too high to risk in a work stoppage.
"People don't want to hear about our squabbling," he said, "and it's criminal if we don't get a deal done.
"I've never seen the health of a business be as bright as this one."
Ultimately it may be Goodell, presiding over his first CBA negotiations since becoming commissioner in 2006, and Smith, installed as union leader in 2009, who may be judged on how quickly — and at what cost — a new deal is reached.
His warning, however, was that if March 4 arrives with no new deal, his commissionership may be marked by the league's first work stoppage since 1987.
Said Goodell, "There will be a number of things that I'm sure both sides will consider (after March 4), that, strategically, I believe will move us away from the negotiating table rather than toward the negotiating table."
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