Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Posted: 6:57 p.m.Updated: 7:37 p.m.
By John Mullin
CSNChicago.com
Good friend Jim Trotter of Sports Illustrated got a moment with NFLPA President Demaurice Smith late Wednesday and it does look like there wont be an 18-game NFL season anytime soon (http:tinyurl.com4j9cc7d).
That means rosters and schedules and myriad other details wont have to be adjusted, at least at this point.
Indeed, nothing is done til its done and hard information has been difficult to come by with the NFL and NFLPA adhering surprisingly well to their vow of silence over the past couple weeks. But indications are that some progress is being made, although substantive issues are still a long way from resolved, and those may be deal-killers.
National Football Posts Andrew Brandt does a great job of laying out the proposals for capping rookie salaries, fittingly titled The Rookie Sacrifice (http:tinyurl.com4d78mv3). Its something which both sides and most of the football public agree have spiraled out of control vs. the success rate of high draft choices, for instance.
Andrew, who negotiated contracts while a member of the Green Bay Packers front office, offers a compromise package of his own which includes splitting the mandatory contract lengths for the 32 first-round picks. Not sure how this will play with players agents, but right now they are the only ones really pushing hard for the yet-to-be players.
NFL
These ideas havent been finalized by any means. But getting a look at some of the proposals on the table, literally, as well as the kind of compromise that could effect some movement, is revealing.
Revealing is the problem, however. The players remain insistent that the owners open their books to wider scrutiny as a way to buttress claims that their profits need the 1 billion kick-in they are demanding that the players make. And the owners, whether for competitive reasons among themselves or whatever, dont see that issue as discussable.
The way out of that stalemate, as Ive alluded to previously, may be the independent verifier mechanism that the league has had for checking validity of contract claims in free agency. An independent auditor has been selected by the players to review books in confidence but whether that works for the owners still is unresolved.
Thursday and Friday are expected to be heavy negotiation days, with another extension not out of the realm of possibility. At least theyre still talking.
John "Moon" Mullin is CSNChicago.com's Bears Insider, and appears regularly on Bears Postgame Live and Chicago Tribune Live. Follow Moon on Twitter for up-to-the-minute Bears information.