NFL, players at loggerheads

The NFL is going through its first work stoppage in 24 years after negotiations over a new labour deal collapsed.

The NFL Players’ Association’s decision to decertify means they are no longer protected by a collective bargaining agreement.

As a result, team owners have locked out players, meaning they are not allowed to be at team facilities or communicate with coaches.

Players are at loggerheads with the league and owners over a whole range of issues, including how to split more than US$9 billion dollars in annual revenue.

Under the current agreement, owners shared a guaranteed one billion dollars of the annual revenue, with the remainder going to the players. But the league and owners want to increase their automatic cut by another billion, arguing that operational costs have risen since the last deal was struck five years ago.

But the players want to maintain the current deal, claiming the owners have failed to provide them with enough financial evidence to prove they needed a bigger slice of the profits.

Other issues include an increase in the regular season schedule to 18 games from 16, a rookie wage scale and pensions for former players.

Nine players – led by MVP Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees – filed an antitrust lawsuit on Friday that included an injunction to try and block the lockout.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league would work hard to try and find a compromise.

“They’ve (the players) chosen to pursue another strategy. That is their choice but we will be prepared to negotiate an agreement and get something done that is fair to the players and fair to the clubs,” Goodell said.

NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said there are still some ‘significant’ differences that need to be ironed out before a deal can be struck.

“We met with the owners until about four o’clock today (and) we discussed a proposal that they had presented,” he said.

“At this time, significant differences continue to remain.”