NFL deal progressing; vote on deck

The National Football League moved toward an end to its labor problems yesterday with cautious optimism as significant progress was made, according to sources with the league and the players.

So much progress was made that a vote by the NFL Players Association board on the proposal that would

end the lockout could come tomorrow.

The hope is that NFL teams will be able to open their doors Wednesday, as well as sign their own free agents and draft picks, and negotiate with other free agents. The players would also begin the process of recertifying as a union Wednesday.

Sources said the apparent breakthrough yesterday came at the highest level, with commissioner Roger Goodell and union executive director DeMaurice Smith hashing out most of the issues and the recertification timeline one-on-one.

Of course, the two also talked at length Thursday before the owners’ vote, and things deteriorated after that.

The new league year - with the start of free agency and training camps - would begin Friday or Saturday, if a majority of players approve the collective bargaining agreement.

Sources said this timeline would keep the entire preseason intact.

The players stunned Goodell and owners Thursday night when they did not ratify the same proposal the owners voted on earlier in the evening in Atlanta.

Not only did the NFLPA not receive the entire proposal until late in the night, it felt there were several points that had to be resolved. Among those issues:

■Settlement terms for the television rights case and for the plaintiffs of the Brady v. NFL case. Those representing the interests of Chargers receiver Vincent Jackson relented yesterday on their demands for $10 million, sources said. He was the final plaintiff to stand down on the issue;

■Possible one-time designation of the franchise tag;

■Workout bonuses that players would have earned if they were not locked out;

■Workman’s compensation issues;

■A possible opt-out after seven years of the CBA;

■An in-season, short-term injured reserve.

It is not known how those and other issues were resolved.

The effects of the shortened training camp season will be seen in many ways, and many efforts will be made to placate fans.

The Broncos said they plan to open Invesco Field for practice Aug. 6. Vikings spokesman Jeff Anderson said the team is “considering a variety of ideas.’’

The Hall of Fame game Aug. 7 is already a casualty. Now, the Hall will hold its annual pregame tailgate party and have Hall of Famers on hand for a meet-and-greet. It is one of 18 Hall events scheduled for the weekend, including the Aug. 6 inductions.

For the teams, there will be enhanced concern about injuries. Few players are likely to be close to football shape when they report.

“Based on working with over 60 active NFL guys,’’ said Brian Martin, CEO of TEST Sports Clubs, “I believe it is roughly 50-50 with those that are workers and those who are not. Many rely on natural gifts and they will be affected with the lack of mandatory conditioning.’’

One-Week Extension of NFL Talks Triggers Optimism Shutdown Will Be Avoided

The extended labor negotiations between the National Football League and its players union may be the most positive sign yet they’ll avert a shutdown of the U.S.’s most popular sport.

Talks resumed yesterday for about four hours under the guidance of a federal mediator and the sides plan to meet again today in Washington.

David Cornwell, president of the sports law firm DNK Cornwell, said he’s increasingly hopeful for an agreement between the sides, which remain split over how to divide $9 billion in revenue -- the most of any sports league.

“Both sides want to get a deal done, and we’re seeing that manifest in the fact that they’re continuing to talk,” Cornwell, who was an NFL lawyer and a finalist for the union executive director’s job, said in a telephone interview.

The NFL and NFL Players Association decided last week to twice extend the current collective bargaining agreement to continue negotiations. George H. Cohen, head of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, said the latest one-week extension ends the evening of March 11. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith have declined to discuss specifics of the talks, adhering to Cohen’s request to keep matters private.

“There’s a commitment on both sides to engage in another round of negotiations at the request of the mediation service,” Smith told reporters last week in Washington. “We look forward to a deal coming out of that.”

Owners voted in 2008 to opt out of the league’s collective bargaining agreement with players, saying it didn’t account for costs, such as those of building stadiums. Talks have also included topics such as expanding the regular season to 18 games from 16, a rookie pay ceiling and health care.

Setting Aside Revenue

The league wants to double the amount of revenue set aside for expenses before paying players, according to the union. Under the expiring agreement, about $1 billion is deducted before player payrolls are calculated for costs related to stadiums, marketing, NFL.com and NFL Network, according to Smith.

Had the deal expired, owners could have locked out players. The union could have abandoned its role in the talks and become a trade association, starting a process that would let players file antitrust lawsuits seeking to block a shutdown of the sport. The union used the same legal tactic after a 1987 strike broken by replacement players, spawning about 20 lawsuits, including one that helped create free agency.

Chris Carr, a union representative for the Baltimore Ravens, said he felt more hopeful when last week’s extension of the deadline pre-empted a union legal filing or an owners’ lockout.

“If they thought the best strategy was to lock the players out, they would not delay,” the Ravens’ cornerback said in an e-mail. “I am optimistic.”

Doty’s Decision

The week-long extension came three days after U.S. District Judge David Doty in Minneapolis ruled that team owners improperly negotiated $4 billion in television rights fees they might have tapped in a work stoppage. He will consider damages in a yet-to-be-scheduled hearing.

Doty, ruling on March 1, overturned an arbitrator’s decision rejecting a union complaint that the NFL improperly negotiated to receive broadcast rights fees from its most- important television partners -- CBS Corp. (CBS), News Corp (NWSA)’s Fox, Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)’s NBC, Walt Disney Co. (DIS)’s ESPN and DirecTV (DTV) -- even if a work stoppage cancels games in 2011.

Anthony DiClemente, a media and entertainment analyst for the Barclays Capital unit of Barclays Plc (BCS) and author of a report “Lockout Looms: Cause for Concern?” said Doty’s decision may help bring a deal more quickly, by placing both sides on a more equal footing.

‘More Optimistic’

“It’s likely to hasten talks and lead to a shorter-than- expected timeline on reaching an agreement,” he said in a telephone interview. Combined with the extension of talks, “We’re more optimistic that the two sides can come to a resolution than we were this time last week.”

The report found that CBS had the most at stake in an NFL work stoppage, because 41 percent of its 2010 national revenue came from its broadcast network and local television stations. Disney has the most to gain, because ESPN and ABC carry most college football, including 33 out of 35 bowl games, and ESPN is protected from a decline in advertising sales because it gets 62 percent of its revenue from affiliate fees.

A day after Doty’s ruling, the rating company Standard & Poor’s halved, to one year, a 2-day-old estimate of how long NFL teams could repay stadium bonds in a work stoppage.

Michael Cramer, director of the University of Texas’s program in sports and media, said the sides should reach an accommodation, for their own sakes.

‘Not a Path’

“Nobody wants to go through the difficulty of what would happen if you just let the contract die,” said Cramer, who is a former president of baseball’s Texas Rangers and hockey’s Dallas Stars. “That’s not a path you want to go down if you can avoid it.”

Cornwell said a lot of work remains to be done, on topics ranging from revenue sharing to performance-enhancing drugs.

“There’s more reason to be optimistic than pessimistic, but they’ve still got substantial ground to cover” he said. “The fact that they are still talking is a cause for optimism.”