NFL Owners Opt Out of Labor Agreement

Source: Associated Press

By DAVE GOLDBERG

ATLANTA (AP) -The NFL and its players' union are on the clock. As it counts down, the games will go on.

To nobody's surprise, owners voted unanimously Tuesday to end their labor agreement with the union in 2011, opting out of a deal that could have gone through 2013.

"All this means is that we will have football now until 2010 and not until 2012," Gene Upshaw, the executive director of the NFL Players Association said during a conference call. "We will move ahead."


NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks to issues of player conduct after earlier addressing the collective bargaining agreement during the NFL owners meeting Tuesday May 20, 2008, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Amis)

Both Upshaw and commissioner Roger Goodell were reasonably optimistic that an agreement could be reached before the start of the 2010 free-agent season, presumably in March of that year. If there is none, that would be the first season without a salary cap since the year after the 1993 labor contract was signed, ending more than a half-decade without labor strife.


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