NFLPA says it plans to decertify if no deal

DETROIT — The NFL Players Association will start making plans to decertify if a deal isn't reached before March 3 to extend the league's collective-bargaining agreement, the union's executive director Gene Upshaw said yesterday.

Using strong words that should rattle NFL owners who are feuding over sharing revenues, Upshaw said the NFLPA was prepared to "cease to be a union" in 2008 to keep the league from locking out the players if a new agreement cannot be reached.

"It'd be pretty tough to lock us out if we're not there," Upshaw said at the union's annual Super Bowl news conference.

The contract expires after the 2007 season. Both sides have said they would like to have a new deal before the league's calendar year begins March 3, although that seems unlikely.

The major problem in negotiations exists among owners, not between the league and the union, Upshaw said. There is a rift between the owners of big-revenue teams - including the Cowboys, Patriots, Eagles, Redskins and Texans - and the owners of smaller-market teams over revenue-sharing. The more profitable franchises want to retain revenues from ambitious ventures such as new stadiums and marketing, while the smaller teams think those teams should share the wealth.

Although the owners have been meeting about once a month to discuss the issue, it is unlikely they will resolve their differences before their annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., which begins March 25. If they can get their issues worked out, it is anticipated that the league and the union can come to a deal relatively quickly.

The union is holding out for at least a 60 percent share of the teams' total football revenues. At this point, the league has offered up to 57 percent, said Troy Vincent, the former Eagles cornerback who is the NFLPA's president.

Upshaw said he thought a deal would be worked out, in part because the league's broadcast partners last year invested $24 billion in contracts to show games.

That money was spent to televise games made up of elite athletes, not "scab" players, he said.

But if a deal cannot be worked out, Upshaw said, he will begin counseling players in earnest about the possibility of a strike. The union would decertify, general counsel Richard Berthelsen said, so that labor laws would not apply and the owners could not lock out the players. If that happened, Berthelsen said, antitrust laws would prevail.

"Games would be played," Berthelsen said. "We'd have to see what evolved from there."

Said Upshaw: "We've demonstrated we are not afraid to decertify. We understand the laws and what's available to us."

Contact staff writer Ashley Fox at 215-854-5064 or amcgeachy@phillynews.com.