Sports

NFL talks focus on free agents

The NFL’s labor talks resumed yesterday in the Boston area amid continued optimism the two sides will reach an agreement within the next month that would save the entire 2011 season.

Much of the buzz outside the closed meeting room centered on what is sure to be a frenetic period of post-agreement free agency, as well as the league’s potential plan for more TV money to help meet the ambitious revenue projections that will help sell the labor deal to the players.

Lead NFL attorney Jeff Pash created a bit of a stir by indicating the owners wouldn’t open free agency until they have a new collective bargaining agreement signed and sealed.

Considering that the new CBA would be hundreds of pages thick and last as long as 10 years, that plan wouldn’t allow teams much time to conduct free agency before training camps start in late July if, as expected, a labor agreement is reached by mid-July.

“Chaos,” an AFC GM told The Post yesterday when asked about the possibility of a two- or one-week free-agency period. “It wouldn’t be impossible, but just getting all the physicals [vetted] in that short of time would be a problem.”

Adding to the frenzy would be the wave of players newly eligible for unrestricted free agency instead of restricted free agency (where the current team has the right of first refusal) under the proposed CBA.

A league source said players with just four years of service time would be eligible for unrestricted status under the new deal, as opposed to needing six years last season while the NFL operated without a salary cap after the owners opted out of the previous CBA.

Also creating noise at the owners’ brief labor meeting Tuesday in Chicago was a report that the NFL plans to increase its TV revenue by selling a full season’s slate of Thursday night games, as opposed to showing eight Thursday games the second half of each year on its own ratings-challenged network.

The owners would need to do that and more if they hope to meet their stated goal to the players of doubling the league’s annual revenue to $18 billion (from the current $9 billion) by 2016.

Proving they can continue to grow the till that explosively will be key for the owners to get the players to agree to reduce their share of revenue to 48 percent (from the current 53 percent) in the new deal.

But a full season of Thursday games — sure to be coldly received by the league’s coaches — remains a sensitive issue and likely would not start until 2014, according to an industry source.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell downplayed the extended Thursday TV proposal when asked about it at the Chicago owners meeting, saying it had not been part of any recent discussions.

bhubbuch@nypost.com