NFL Nears Deal With Players

An NFL committee headed by two of the league’s most respected club owners, Dan Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pat Bowlen of the Denver Broncos, will ask the other 26 owners to approve a labor agreement with the players next week.

Rooney, Bowlen and Commissioner Paul Tagliabue have been meeting in New York this week with the players’ representatives. And, Tagliabue said Wednesday, “we have a preliminary agreement on a framework for (a deal).”

Although no ownership executive and none of the players’ leaders will confirm it, the framework of the plan to be presented by the committee at a special league meeting in Dallas next Tuesday or Wednesday is believed to include:

--Free agency for players with five years in the NFL.

--A cap on player salaries if and when player costs exceed 62% of NFL revenues. Those costs are now about 55%.

--One “franchise exemption” per club. Athletes designated as franchise players will not be allowed to move to other teams as free agents.

--Three transition players per club. The owners will retain the right of first refusal if transition players get other offers.

--A six-year collective bargaining agreement.

--The draft to continue for the next six years, shortened annually, perhaps, to seven rounds, with bonus provisions for teams losing free agents.

Until these terms are actually signed into an agreement, “all are obviously still negotiable,” a source said, but he expects little change.

Approval has already been granted by most of the NFL’s player representatives.

In Minneapolis, a source with ties to the district court said that federal Judge David Doty has been withholding his decision in the Reggie White case pending such an agreement.

On behalf of 600 other NFL players, White, the Philadelphia Eagles’ All-Pro defensive end, has petitioned for free agency Feb. 1, based on the same court ruling that freed Keith Jackson, now of the Miami Dolphins, and three other players this fall.

Before learning that player-owner negotiations were under way, Doty had planned to announce his decision Thanksgiving week.

In such cases, court-watchers say, judges prefer settlements to judicial orders.

Spokesmen on both sides of the NFL fence agreed that after years of arguments, months of discussions and a 2 1/2-hour conference call Thursday, nothing has been decided.

“We don’t have an agreement yet,” said John Shaw, the Ram executive vice president and a member of the NFL’s Management Council.

Said player attorney Jim Quinn: “There hasn’t been a settlement.”

And yet, several sources said, the framework is pretty much in place for a settlement ending an impasse that has existed since 1987.

The parties, these sources said, have made several compromises:

--The five-year free-agency provision favors neither side. The owners have been seeking six years, the players four.

--There will be no free agency for any player in his first three NFL seasons.

--Veterans in their fourth and fifth seasons will be eligible for limited free agency based on compensation/first refusal arrangements that are somewhat less restrictive than those in recent NFL settlements.

--In addition to the scheduled six-year bargaining agreement, a seventh year is planned with free-agency provisions that favor neither side, encouraging both to return to the negotiating table.

--Teams will be required to pay franchise players at the top of the scale, reportedly an average of the salaries paid the top five NFL players at their positions. At new-contract time, the minimum salary for the most valuable players will be 120% of present salary.

--Teams will designate two transition players each in the first year of the agreement and another transition player each in the second year. The owners will have the right of first refusal if such players get offers from other teams. “Transition,” they said, means possible transition to franchise-player status.

--A transition player reportedly must be paid the average of the salaries for the NFL’s top 10 at his position. At new-contract time, the minimum would be 120% of his present salary.

--Although a salary cap has been a sticking point, the parties might have solved that with a sliding scale based on percentage of NFL revenues allotted to the players.

League attorneys, unsure that a new agreement will be ratified by the necessary 21 club owners next week in Dallas, are also preparing a fall-back proposal--called Plan C--that would be presented to Judge Doty later this month without player approval.