p8ryts

ESPN.com (and others) say there will likely be a strike or lockout in 2008

"What are the long-term ramifications for the league?
Barring a new CBA, the players either will be on strike or the owners will lock out the players in 2008. The union likely will decertify, and antitrust rules will apply. Also, the NFL draft will go away in 2008 as part of a clause inserted into the current CBA. Players coming out of college could be free agents, with no salary restrictions. Open negotiations, including those for rookies coming out of college, will leave it to the players to get what they can get. "

Why is that likely? Can someone enlighten me on this?

fgssand

All the little greedy piggies cannot get along with an agreement in place, do you really thin they can get over themselves come 2008?

mgteich

And why panic now about 2008?

pats1

What did not paniking about today do two years ago?

shirtsleeve

Two words: salary structure. The league cannot survive as it is without one, and the players won't ever want to re-establish one again.

p8ryts

Why does that signify a strike in 2008? I would expect a strike to be inevitable as the salaries escalate but why would it be necessary in 2008?

PromisedLand

Everyone is accepting the second half of your statement as gospel. Why is that? How many players have you heard say that?

Gene Upshaw keeps saying publicly that if the CBA is not extended, thus causing 2007 to be an uncapped year, their will never be a salary cap again. But just the fact that Upshaw says that does not make it so. He may not even be head of the players' union by 2008; there have been many rumblings over the past weeks from players who are not happy with the union. Furthermore, everything that comes out of Upshaw's disingenious mouth is posturing. Don't buy it. Upshaw is a snakeoil salesman.

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JoeSixPat

A lot of it is posturing and brinksmanship - but failing to have a CBA now does have signficant consequences in 2006 and 2007 as well as 2008. So its not like its business as usual for 2 years.

That's why there is pressure to get a deal done now - and once the genie is out of the bottle - i.e. an uncapped year - its going to be near impossible to put it back in.

Having no structure beyond this year will allow and require owners to strucutre salaries on the assumption that there will be no cap. That's not something easilly changed on the eve of the 2007 season, or the eve of the 2008 season

It needs to be done now.

Its very dangerous to assume that the NFL can go into Wild West mode for 2 years and then return to the structure that has worked so well for them up to now.

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