25 years of labor pains, gains
05.10.2007 14:01
Sport and Travel
- Source: USA Today
Twenty five years ago, NFL players struck for eight weeks and the NFL shut down. Twenty years ago, the players walked the picket line for three weeks.
Both job actions were continuations of a struggle for unrestricted free agency that began in the 1970s. The players got their wish in 1993 and the rewards have been handsome all around — the game grew in popularity, franchise values ballooned and salaries shot up. The NFL and its players can do business together. "If you were to take a snapshot of September 1982, I would never have predicted we could have the kind of relationship we have now," says Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Association. In 1982, NFL players hit on the novel idea of asking owners for a portion of their revenue — 55% of the gross. The NFL laughed it off. In 1987, the players asked for free agency. The NFL hired replacements, staged three games with less-than-luminescent stars and broke the strike. Six years later, after protracted battles in court, the settlement of a lawsuit led to a collective bargaining agreement. That gave the players free agency and a percentage of the gross; the owners got a salary cap and a way to control their costs. Considering how unhappy everybody was for so long, 13 years of relative harmony seems like paradise. "There's very little difference now between management and labor," says Carl Banks, the former linebacker whose career with the New York Giants, the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Browns spanned 1984-95. "There's a lot of money being made now." The average NFL salary in 1982 was $90,000. Today: $1.75 million. When the NFL awarded teams to Seattle and Tampa Bay in 1976, it commanded expansion fees of $16 million. When Carolina and Jacksonville were invited to the party in 1995, the tab was $140 million. In 1998, $530 million for Cleveland. By 2002, the Houston Texans bought their way in for $700 million. Now Forbes magazine values the Dallas Cowboys at nearly $1.5 billion. Peace and prosperity. Not really an odd pairing, is it? Odd that the NFL players could barely hold together for a three-week strike in 1987 but eventually got what they were seeking, when the siege of '82 lasted much longer and yielded less. By 1987, though, more players were making more money and the issues had grown more complex. "Everyone asks why the baseball union is so strong and gets what it wants and football struggles. One, it's sheer numbers and the number of opinions," says Dale Hellestrae, an offensive lineman and long-snapper for 17 seasons. "In 1987 I think we were making $800 for preseason games and there were guys who wanted to make that $1,000 and were willing to give up game checks (by striking), where other guys were talking about pensions and benefits." Jim Mora, now with the NFL Network, was an assistant coach with the New England Patriots in 1982 and head coach of the New Orleans Saints in '87. "In 1982, it was hard because you had to prepare each week like you were going to play. At the beginning, you thought it wouldn't be a long strike and then it went on and on," he says. "In 1987 we got the replacement players and we coached the hell out of them because the games were going to count. You had to compete." As players — Hall of Famers Lawrence Taylor and Steve Largent among them — decided to report, solidarity crumbled. "It made me angry," says Tim Irwin, an offensive tackle and player representative with the Minnesota Vikings who's now a juvenile court judge in Knox County, Tenn. "Some of the guys crossing the line were superstars making the bucks. It was selfish." The NFL and the players now enjoy a closer working relationship and in 2006 extended their labor agreement once more, through 2012. But either side can opt out in November 2008 and shorten the deal by two years. That would eliminate the salary cap after the '09 season and make 2010 uncapped. "What we have lived with since 1993 has been good, but it's getting very expensive and untenable for some of the teams at the bottom (in revenue)," Steelers owner Dan Rooney says. "That has to be solved. This goes beyond revenue sharing. We're going to have to have a workable deal with the union." Upshaw, in his travels to visit the players, tells them he expects the owners to opt out. If they want to ditch the salary cap, so be it. "We can live without it. We didn't want a cap in the first place," he says. So maybe there's another court fight ahead. Maybe peace and prosperity are heading for a divorce. But Rooney says he cannot fathom either a strike or a lockout for two simple reasons. "The players make too much money," he says, "and the owners have too much debt."
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