Delay of Game: Lockout Looms for NFL

Jan. 20, 2011 — -- Fall Sundays and the NFL -- it's a combination as American as apple pie. But for players, teams and millions of football fans, there may be no kickoffs next September.

The current labor contract between the NFL and the players' union, NFL Players Association (NFLPA), expires on March 4, one month after the Super Bowl. Unless a new agreement is reached, it looks like the league will head straight for a work stoppage.

That means no spring practice, no free agency deals and, potentially, no 2011 season.

"At the end of the day, fans want to know, 'Am I going to see football next year?' and unfortunately we can't guarantee that," said George Atallah, the NFLPA's assistant executive director for external affairs.

Typically, when NFL players come to Washington, it's to celebrate a championship. This week, they came to present their case to members of Congress in an attempt to ensure there still will be a game to play.

The standoff between the league and team owners and the players centers around two key issues:

First, revenue sharing. NFL players currently receive 60 percent of the league's $9 billion dollars in annual revenue, but team owners say that's unsustainable given the economic downturn. They want to reduce the players' share by about 9 to 18 percent.

The second issue is the schedule. The league wants to add two more regular season games, for a total of 18. Players say that increases their risk of injury and they deserve compensation.

Players want Congress to use its leverage over the league -- leverage that they say comes from an anti-trust exemption given to the NFL years ago to negotiate television contracts and share revenues.

So far, members have shown little indication they will intervene, and the players insisted that they were not expecting them to.

"At this point, we're not trying to get anybody to step in to interfere, we just want to inform members of Congress where we stand," said Pete Kendall, a former offensive lineman and now a permanent representative on the union's negotiating committee.

"We're not looking for Congress to step in and do anything per se," said Indianapolis Colts center Jeff Saturday. "We're just looking to get people in our communities to understand what our cause is."