My Balls

NEW YORK -- NFL owners will try Thursday to find labor peace before the start of free agency, hoping to avoid the mass dumping of veterans for salary-cap reasons.

The owners will meet in New York, looking to reach an agreement with the players' union that could add $10 million to $15 million to a 2006 salary cap that currently is $94.5 million. Without it, some teams could be forced into wholesale cuts to get beneath the cap by midnight. Free agency starts Friday. The NFL extended the deadline for teams to terminate contracts and request waivers on players six hours, from 4 p.m. Thursday to 10 p.m.

The NFL said in a statement Wednesday that the management council executive committee unanimously rejected the union's latest proposal "as a basis for further negotiations."

"Without an agreement with the union on an extension, the league year will begin as scheduled at midnight Thursday under the current terms of the CBA," the statement said.

Three days of talks between the league and the NFL Players Association to extend the agreement that runs out in 2008 ended Tuesday with the sides far apart on the percentage of league revenues earmarked for its players. Gene Upshaw, the union's executive director, said the league is offering 56.2 percent of its total revenue for the players, almost four points lower than the union's.

"Our number has to start with a six," Upshaw said.

But beyond the numbers is an issue that has divided the owners for two years: revenue sharing among the teams.

Under the current system, some teams make far more than others in ancillary income, ranging from local radio rights to stadium naming rights and advertising. The lower revenue teams say that forces them to commit as much as 70 percent of that money to the players while teams with more outside money contribute far less, giving the high-revenue teams more available cash for upfront bonuses to free agents.

The NFL said in a statement after talks broke off that revenue sharing won't be discussed at Thursday's meeting.

Still, it is bound to come up during a meeting that on the surface is considered a strategy session to determine the owners' next move. Labor negotiations often have a way of being moved forward by deadlines, and revenue sharing is considered a critical part of the formula.

Under the current agreement, 2006 is scheduled to be the last year with a salary cap. An uncapped year in 2007 means new rules that will force teams and agents to change their plans this year and could keep a lot of teams out of the free-agent market entirely.

"It might mean that no rookies get signed because no one is sure of the long-term ramifications," said Tom Condon, the agent for a number of the game's top players.

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