Owners' Meetings Today and Tomorrow in Atlanta

The owners are gathering today in Atlanta. There are some committee meetings scheduled for today, and a one-day full owners' meeting is to take place Tuesday.

The big news will be whether the owners vote to exercise the reopener clause in their labor deal with the players' union. The agreement, ratified by the owners in March 2006, gives either side the option to exercise the reopener clause by Nov. 8. If that happens, the deal will expire after the 2010 season and the 2009 season will be the final one with a salary cap in place. Union chief Gene Upshaw has said he expects the owners to exercise the reopener clause and consider a lockout of the players in 2011.

But that doesn't mean the move has to come Tuesday. The two sides already have had at least one bargaining session, and some on the owners' side seem to favor trying to negotiate a new deal with the union without officially opting out of the current agreement.

Upshaw, however, has said the players won't take less than the 59.5 percent of league revenues that the current deal gives them under the salary cap. Several owners have expressed dissatisfaction with the agreement, and the voting requirement set up by the owners when they approved the 2006 settlement makes opting out of the deal relatively easy: Three-quarters of the 32 teams must vote to continue the deal to its completion. Thus, it takes only nine votes for the reopener clause to be exercised.

There will be some other business at Tuesday's meeting as well. The owners are to award the Super Bowl in 2012 to Indianapolis, Houston or Arizona.

They are to reconsider the proposal by the Kansas City Chiefs to restrict players' hair length. The measure would prohibit a player's hair from covering the name or number on his jersey during a game. It requires approval of at least 24 of the 32 teams. The owners and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell discussed the proposal at the recent league meeting in Palm Beach, Fla., but delayed a vote. Goodell sought input from the players and later said he had concerns about the proposal, including whether the protective integrity of an affected player's helmet might be compromised by stuffing more hair beneath it.

The owners also could enact a proposal by the NFL's competition committee to create a five- to seven-day window before the opening of the free agent market each year in which the agent for a player eligible for free agency could negotiate with all teams, not only the player's most recent club. The proposal was made because the current rule prohibiting such negotiations before the opening of free agency is widely ignored but few teams are caught and punished for violations.

By Mark Maske |  May 19, 2008; 11:03 AM ET  | Category:  League
Previous: Belichick Says Walsh Lacks Credibility | Next: Bengals Release O. Thurman

The comments to this entry are closed.