Thursday, bloody Thursday
NFL owners voted unanimously Thursday to break off talks with the players' union on a contract extension, leaving the current salary cap in place with the start of free agency looming and possibly forcing the mass dumping of veterans.
"The situation is about as dire as dire can be," commissioner Paul Tagliabue said.
The owners, who met for 57 minutes Thursday morning, endorsed a recommendation by their management council executive committee to reject the union's latest proposal.
The breakdown of talks left intact, for now, a salary cap of $94.5 million. The two sides had hoped to add $10 million to $15 million to the 2006 salary cap. Without the additional room, some teams could be forced into wholesale cuts to get beneath the cap by midnight. Free agency starts Friday.
In addition to the whole uncertainty that comes with a lack of a labor agreement, the biggest ramification is that today will probably see the most and the most-talented players cut from NFL teams ever. Instead of trimming fat, they'll be trimming to the marrow to meet the low salary cap, which means egregious spending teams (*ahem cough Washington*) will be forced to let go expensive albeit talented players....
Also note, sadly, that KC is one of those teams. Today's a bad day to be a Chief. Edit: Today's a really bad day to be Eric Warfield, Dexter McCleon, Shawn Barber or Gary Stills. But then again, most days are.
"The situation is about as dire as dire can be," commissioner Paul Tagliabue said.
The owners, who met for 57 minutes Thursday morning, endorsed a recommendation by their management council executive committee to reject the union's latest proposal.
The breakdown of talks left intact, for now, a salary cap of $94.5 million. The two sides had hoped to add $10 million to $15 million to the 2006 salary cap. Without the additional room, some teams could be forced into wholesale cuts to get beneath the cap by midnight. Free agency starts Friday.
In addition to the whole uncertainty that comes with a lack of a labor agreement, the biggest ramification is that today will probably see the most and the most-talented players cut from NFL teams ever. Instead of trimming fat, they'll be trimming to the marrow to meet the low salary cap, which means egregious spending teams (*ahem cough Washington*) will be forced to let go expensive albeit talented players....
Also note, sadly, that KC is one of those teams. Today's a bad day to be a Chief. Edit: Today's a really bad day to be Eric Warfield, Dexter McCleon, Shawn Barber or Gary Stills. But then again, most days are.