The September 11 terrorist attacks forced the NFL to greatly increase security at all games, and Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said that one of the several remaining unresolved issues with the CBA extension deals was paying for that security.
The NFL Management Council and the NFL Players Association agreed in June to the extension, which would assure the league of labor peace through the 2007 season. It would be the fourth extension of the original CBA reached in 1993, and it would give the NFL labor peace for 20 years since its last labor-related interruption, the 1987 strike.
The extension would push the salary cap through until 2006 and would carry two years beyond the NFL's $17.6 billion (B19.5bn) television contract, giving the league additional clout in its next TV negotiations.
"There's a lot of support for it, subject to getting these anywhere between one and four remaining issues resolved," Tagliabue said. "Mostly, they're about where we are going to be in 2006, how we deal with the cap that year based on TV and the considerable added expenses the teams are going to have and the league is going to have in terms of security. We think the cost of that should be split with the players association under the CBA in some way and not borne entirely by the owners."
Under the proposed extension, players could receive an increase in salary to as high as 65.5 percent of designated gross revenues in 2005. Veteran players also would have a portion of their salaries paid out of a league-wide fund instead of counting against the salary cap.
One of the prime criticisms of the current agreement was it gives too little security for higher-paid veterans to hold onto their jobs.
NFL owners were expected to ratify a three-year extension of the collective bargaining agreement with the players union today, although they now want the players to help pay for the fast-growing cost of additional security.
