Originally Posted by www.profootballtalk.com

UNION INSISTS CBA FORFEITURE LIMITS APPLY TO ALL BONUSES

Earlier this week, we highlighted the fact that, for the most part, the specific bonus forfeiture language from the "Term Sheet" outlining the changes to the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NFL and the NFL Players Association applies only to signing bonuses.

This means (in theory) that teams and players can still agree to language triggering broad forfeitures of option bonus and roster bonus payments.

A league source tells us that the NFLPA firmly believes that the language in the Term Sheet is intended to encompass option and roster bonuses -- even though "signing bonus" is the only term used.

A significant issue? Yes, especially in light of the fact that many of this year's first-round draft picks will receive no traditional "signing bonus," which would make the new restrictions on the forfeiture of signing bonuses useless. So with the Term Sheet placing tight limits on a team's ability to recoup signing bonus money, teams could insert (for example) a clause requiring the player to give back every penny of his multi-million-dollar option bonus if he ever puts his butt on the back of a motorbike -- if, of course, the Term Sheet only applies to signing bonuses.

With the NFL and the NFLPA currently negotiating the question of whether and to what extent the Term Sheet forfeiture provisions apply to pre-existing contracts, and in light of the perception that as to these portions of the Term Sheet the union cleaned the league's clock (a certain typo in that specific phrase could be extremely problematic), our guess is that there is a battle unfolding behind closed doors regarding the interpretation and application of language that, by all appearances, was slapped together as an afterthought while labor and management -- and management and management -- squabbled over the manner in which the ever-growing pool of revenue would be carved up and distributed going forward.

This lack of attention to detail as to the finer points of the Term Sheet also suggests to us that someone will be pissed off when the text of the CBA is finalized. And this only raises, in our estimation, the likelihood that either the NFL or the NFLPA (or both) will opt to scuttle the final two years of the new arrangement, plunging us all back into CBA crisis mode as early as November 2008.

It would be great for our traffic -- but very, very bad for the game.