WASHINGTON — Unless the sides agree to another extension to the talks, time is running out on a new NFL labor deal.
The owners and players met for nearly 10 hours again yesterday but still emerged far apart while lobbing emotional charges at each other less than 48 hours before tomorrow night’s deadline.
The source of yesterday’s friction was the same as it had been the day before — the NFL Players Association’s insistence that it won’t agree to give back any more money unless the owners open up their team-by-team financial books.
Union chief DeMaurice Smith confirmed the owners’ previous demand for an extra $1 billion annually in revenue givebacks is now down to $800 million annually, but that appeared to be the extent of any progress during a 14th day of talks refereed by federal mediator George Cohen.
Smith then upped the pressure on the owners last night at a fan event by announcing for the first time that the players will not agree to the owners’ plan for an 18-game regular season because of safety concerns.
Hours before that surprise revelation, Smith said the owners’ offer of limited profitability statements was unacceptable.
“The information that was offered wasn’t what we asked for,” Smith said. “That information would be utterly meaningless.”
Jeff Pash, the NFL’s lead attorney, responded by saying the owners have been more than reasonable when it comes to disclosing their money figures.
“It is a fact that the players association has received more detailed financial information in this negotiation than it ever has before,” said Pash, who was joined in yesterday’s talks by Giants co-owner John Mara and Steelers president Art Rooney.
Asked if it was realistically possible to get such a complicated deal done before tomorrow’s deadline, Pash said: “I don’t know.”
There were reports quoting anonymous sources that the sides had agreed on the framework of a rookie wage scale, but both Smith and Pash denied that last night.
Despite the rhetoric, it still seems unlikely that the owners will let it reach the nuclear stage of locking out the union and prompting a sure antitrust lawsuit by the players.
Antitrust cases have not been kind to the NFL over the past 30 years, especially in the court of federal judge David Doty.
That was obvious last week when Doty delivered a crushing blow to the owners by denying their plan to use nearly $5 billion in TV rights money as “lockout insurance” in 2011 and 2012.
In light of that history, it was easy to see why Pash admitted last night that more detailed financial information from the owners is negotiable.