Owners Terminate CBA

The NFL Owners have announced that they have opted to cancel the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the player's union.

In a statement the league insists that

"[e]ven without another agreement, NFL football will be played without threat of interruption for at least the next three seasons. The 2008 and 2009 seasons will be played with a salary cap. If there is no new agreement before the 2010 season, that season will be played without a salary cap under rules that also limit the free agency rights of the players. If not extended, the agreement would expire at the end of the 2010 league year."

Meanwhile, in this week's installment of his "100 Words,"(released 5/19) the head of the National Football League Player's Association, Gene Upshaw, signals that this news has been expected for some time, and as a result is anticlimactic:

"The NFL owners will hold their spring meeting in Atlanta this week. One of the issues surely to be discussed is the timing of the early termination notice of the CBA. We should expect a notice to be given to us following this meeting. The notice will have no material effect on the players. It only means the CBA will end after the 2010 season unless an extension is negotiated. With all the talk about early termination, it will be good to get this issue behind us since all the owners have done since signing the 2006 agreement is complain."

One thing to remember, vis-a-vis the uncapped season of 2010, is that Mr. Upshaw has been adamant that the players would not play in an uncapped year -- the obvious point being that the players would strike rather than play.