What NFL Owners Will Demand in Next Collective Bargaining Agreement

The NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, or CBA, is set to expire in March of 2011. Since the agreement is unlikely to be settled in the next two months, we already know that one impending change is that the NFL will be playing with no salary cap this season.

While that affects free agency, the real meat of the changes to the business of football will occur if and when the powers that be come to their senses and agree to agree.

Whenever that does eventually happen, and it will, trust me, we can expect some major changes.

Before an agreement is reached, we can expect owners to attempt to lock out players, and legal battles to ensue. The 2011 football season may be fought in court rather than on the football field.

But eventually both sides will come to realize how badly they need each other, and that will take compromise. The players will probably end up having to give in to some of the owner’s demands.

While the only way to avoid a work stoppage is for both sides to compromise, here are a few of the changes that I do not see the owners being willing to back off from:

1. Salary slotting for rookies

Let’s face it, this doesn’t affect the current players, who will be voting on the next CBA, so one can expect them to give in to the demand to establish a rookie salary cap, similar to what the NBA does.

And look, it has to happen, for rookie salaries have gotten outrageous. It must even make the veterans angry when they see a rookie coming in making much more guaranteed money that they make despite having gone through the wars.

Expect a concession to the players for an earlier restricted free agent status, perhaps after three years. But this one's easy. 

2. Extended regular season

One issue that the players may have to reluctantly agree to is a longer regular season. Personally, I’d rather see the league go back to 14 games, but that is a pipe dream.

There is simply more revenue to be generated from a regular season game than an exhibition game, so you can expect the compromise to be that the owners will eliminate one exhibition game from the schedule.

Whether the new season is extended to 17 or 18 games will be the subject of fierce negotiation, but fans should expect a longer season.

The Super Bowl has already been pushed into February, so perhaps one option is to eliminate the bye week. No matter what, an extended season will, once again, impact the validity of the statistical records of the game.

3. Sharing the pie

This is the key bone of contention and why the owners opted out of the CBA, which had originally been scheduled to go through 2012.

Owners are getting increasingly concerned about the player’s growing share of the revenue. With a bad economy, and the debt resulting from so many new stadiums, owners want to reduce the amount of revenue they share with the players.

Advertising revenue is down due to the economy as well, but once you give a player’s union (in any sport) something, it’s awfully difficult to take it back without a fight. So this demand will be much tougher to resolve that the first two.

Even so, the fact that the NFL players’ 59 percent take is the largest among the top professional sports in the United States makes this one very likely to argue against.

But the union will try, and they are already asking the owners to open up the books to them to prove they are losing money. The owners have responded by reminding them that they didn't ask the players to prove they needed more revenue in the last negotiations.

4. Repeal of bonuses for "breach of contract"

The current CBA effectively prohibits the clubs from recouping bonuses paid to players who subsequently breach their player contacts or refuse to perform, and that is patently unfair to everyone. It is even unfair to the players who honor their contracts.

In summary, I believe these are the main points that the owners will focus on in negotiations. And if the union balks, the owners will be hoping for a repeat of 1987.

That year, if you recall, the players decided to strike and it was a disaster for the players, as a number of big names, including Lawrence Taylor and Joe Montana, crossed picket lines to play.

But while the union thinks owners will be willing to do anything, even cancel the season, to get their way, NFL Commish Roger Goodell disagrees.

“The owners’ intent here is to get to an agreement. The idea that the owners are looking for a lockout and that would be their objective is foolish,” Goodell said. “That’s really not a practical outcome for them in the sense of being beneficial to the league.”

As long as they get what they want, that is.