Owners unable to reach resolution

GRAPEVINE, Texas -- The NFL was still without labor peace after team owners met for most of Tuesday without reaching any agreements.

Yet another deadline looms today, with owners trying to decide whether to accept the union's latest proposal.

A decision on whether to extend the collective bargaining agreement was unlikely to come down until close to the latest deadline of 8 p.m. EST on Wednesday. Before making a deal with the union, the owners must resolve their own differences over expanded internal revenue sharing. If they don't get that straight, a CBA deal is unlikely.

Much of the early hours of Tuesday's meeting was spent simply listening to commissioner Paul Tagliabue go through details of the union's proposal. Then Tagliabue outlined revenue sharing, but there was no discussion before the owners broke for dinner.

"We haven't punched anybody yet," said Pittsburgh owner Dan Rooney, who described Tagliabue's remarks as "Excellent. Super."

"He described how the owners and players should be in this together for the good of the league," added Rooney, who has helped to solve past labor disputes.

League spokesman Joe Browne said Tagliabue had agreed with Gene Upshaw, the executive director of the NFL Players Association, that the owners would have a decision no later than 8 p.m. EST Wednesday. That would come as the union, which is meeting in Hawaii, holds its executive board session.

"It was a good day," Browne said after the meeting broke up for good Tuesday night.

One of those who supported Tagliabue was Oakland's Al Davis, for decades the NFL's most consistent maverick, who noted that the league had had enough of labor disputes.

"I love my country and I love my league," Davis said as the meeting broke up for the day. "People who have been through this in the past want something good to come of it. What's good is another question."

There seemed to be some hope they would reach an agreement that would extend the contract that runs out after the 2007 season. It came from Dallas owner Jerry Jones, who has been an opponent of expanded revenue sharing, but suggested for the first time that he might have to give in a bit to let the owners solve their dispute.

"We want to play football," Jones said as he entered the meeting. "We have an obligation to everyone, particularly our fans.

"My gut is we're going to come up with something, but it's still up in the air. It's going to be long and drawn out and tough."

Finding a solution now is critical because free agency, pushed back twice, is scheduled to start Thursday with a $94.5 million salary cap that could go as much as $10 million higher if there is an extension. And although both sides have agreed there will be no more extensions there would be one more if there is an agreement -- until 12:01 a.m. Friday to give teams time to get everything in order.

If there is no settlement, then 2007 would have no salary cap and create the kind of uncertainty that neither side really wants.

If nothing else, the tone of the owners was far different at this meeting than in New York last Thursday, when they took just 57 minutes to reject the union proposal.