NFL, PLAYERS' UNION CALL A DELAY OF GAME FREE AGENCY PUSHED BACK FOR MORE CBA TALK.

Byline: Billy Witz Staff Writer

With negotiations for a new labor deal at a standstill, the NFL and its players' union found something that they could agree Thursday - the need for more time.

With seven hours before the start of the league's fiscal year, which was supposed to begin at 9:01 p.m. PST Thursday with the opening of the free agent market, the NFL and the NFL Players Association agreed to push back the start of their calendar for another three days in the hopes that the two sides could agree on an extension of the collective bargaining agreement.

Prospects for an extension, which could boost the salary cap by about $15 million and allow teams more latitude in negotiations with free agents and rookies this year, appeared to wane earlier in the day.

NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue had summoned owners and executives from all 32 clubs to a special meeting Thursday morning in New York, but it lasted less than an hour - long enough for them to endorse the recommendation of the owners' labor committee that they reject the union's latest offer.

``It's about as dire as it can be,'' Tagliabue said during a brief news conference after the meeting. ``We're going to go back and talk about next steps, but I think at this point, it's not about making phone calls.''

In recent days, the sides have been stuck on two long-standing issues: what percentage of gross revenues would go to player salaries (the union wants 60 percent, the NFL 56.2) and whether revenues that are not currently shared among the teams - stadium-naming rites, luxury-suite sales, local sponsorships, for example - should be.

The union wants those revenues to be shared so that as the salary cap rises, all teams are more likely to have the funds to spend right up to the cap limit. On this issue, the union has an ally in many lower-revenue clubs, who believe the notion of competitive balance - which has helped fuel the NFL's exponential growth - would otherwise be jeopardized.

``We need to keep what's built this league, and that's the strength of revenue sharing,'' Colts owner Jim Irsay, whose team was 29th in the NFL in revenues according to a Forbes Magazine survey last year, told reporters after the meeting.

Many of the high-revenue clubs, such as the Patriots, Redskins, Eagles and Texans, argue they need those revenues to pay down the debt on the new stadiums they've built, which have created the boost in revenue.

Tagliabue said revenue sharing was not an impediment, instead blaming the impasse on ``the fundamental change in the way (the players) are defining their expectations as to the percentages that should go to the players and the unwillingness ... to recognize the very real costs that are associated with doing all the things the league has done to build new stadiums, generate revenues, invest in a whole range of enterprises that produces the revenue.''

If no deal is reached by Sunday, many teams might be forced to make wholesale cuts since, while the salary cap will be about $94.5 million - an approximately $9 million increase from last season - the rules of the next fiscal year will force teams to count future guarantees against the salary cap this season.

To some teams, such as the Vikings, Cardinals, Browns and Packers, who are in excess of $23 million under the cap, this won't be a problem.

Some who are in the red against the cap have worked around this by renegotiating contracts to provide cap relief, as the Redskins, who were $14.5 over the cap earlier this week, have done with quarterback Mark Brunell, running back Clinton Portis and cornerback Shawn Springs.

For free agents, with less money available and the potential bonanza of an uncapped year in 2007, there figure to be more deals like the one quarterback Chris Simms signed to stay Wednesday with Tampa Bay: one year, $2.1 million.

For rookies, there won't be any deals like the $24 million that the 49ers guaranteed No. 1 pick Alex Smith last summer.

``You couldn't do that this year,'' said agent Leigh Steinberg, who Thursday briefed his rookie clients - which include USC's Matt Leinart and Winston Justice - on the consequences of the labor negotiations.

While neither the union nor the NFL have moved closer to an agreement, many seemed to view the three-day delay as a sign that they will. This is different from the NHL, the NBA and Major League Baseball, which all forced lockouts to institute a type of salary cap. The NFL already has one.

``Despite all the posturing, I think they'll reach an agreement at the 11th hour,'' said Matt Mitten, director of the National Sports Law Institute at Marquette University. ``There's too much at stake for both sides not to do so.''

Billy Witz, [phone]

billy.witz(at)dailynews.com

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