I’ll add this to the Labor review, but it bears noting that Goodell says the league expects an uncapped 2010.
“Because of the timing, we recognize there’s a strong reality there will be an uncapped year, and the owners have planned for it,” Goodell said. “What the owners’ intent is is to get an agreement.”
Goodell also bristled at the notion the owners would lock out the players in 2011.
“That a lockout would be their objective, that’s foolish,” he said.
Goodell met with union chief DeMaurice Smith on Tuesday over lunch, but no negotiations took place.
“I told De, ‘Let’s start negotiating,”‘ Goodell said, “and that’s our intent.”
But there is no timetable for beginning significant talks, and the union says the onus is on the owners to present an offer.
According to league figures, the players have received about 75 percent of revenues since 2006, while the other 25 percent has gone to costs, plus another 6 percent over that which owners have absorbed because of rising costs.
The union disputes those numbers.
“The CBA explicitly restricts player costs to just under 60 percent,” NFLPA spokesman George Atallah told The Associated Press. “That is fixed. They’d have to provide relevant information to support that wild claim, because we certainly don’t have it.”
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