For the first time since 1982, the NFL and its players' union have agreed on a collective bargaining agreement. If ratified, the seven-year pact will end the labor strife that has plagued the league since 1987.
The agreement, announced Thursday night, gives the players substantial increases in pensions, further liberalizes free agency and boosts payments to players whose lives were radically altered by football-related injuries.Players who have agreed to join the union will begin voting on the contract immediately. The league's management council unanimously approved the agreement Thursday on behalf of the 28 clubs.
The NFL's latest labor problems began in September 1987, when a five-year contract expired. The players went on strike, but the owners fielded replacement teams and the strike failed after a little less than a month.
Players have been performing without a collective bargaining contract ever since.
The biggest issue separating the two sides was free agency, but a settlement last January gave several hundred players the right to change teams. The owners and union began face-to-face bargaining in mid-March after the union was re-certified.
The agreement spells out details of benefits and work rules that had not been changed since the old contract was reached in 1982.
The agreement provides for each team to increase its spending on benefits from $4.04 million in 1993 to $6.6 million in 1999.
The contract also modifies free agency rules.
Under the new agreement, some franchise players will be able to change teams, with the old team receiving two first-round draft picks as compensation.
This year's franchise players must be offered a contract by June 15 worth at least the average salary of the five highest paid players at his position, based on contracts signed through May 6.
Or, the club can maintain its original offer to the player and allow him until July 15 to seek offers from other teams.
For example, if Steve Young of the San Francisco 49ers received an offer the 49ers deemed too expensive, Young would switch teams and the 49ers would be compensated with draft picks.
Other items of note:
- Current player pension benefits will increase 100 percent during the seven years, and a post-career 401-K plan will be created for players and their families. Former players already receiving their NFL pension will get an immediate 40 percent increase.
- Disability benefits for players seriously injured during a game will increase drastically. Former Detroit Lion Mike Utley, paralyzed from the neck down in a 1991 game, received an annual disability payment of $48,000. That figure will increase immediately to $100,000 and will rise to $200,000 in 1999.
- Players severely injured in off-the-field accidents will see an immediate ten-fold increase in annual benefits from $9,000 to $90,000. One such player is Gabe Rivera, a Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman who was paralyzed in a car accident.
- Postseason pay for a player who wins the Super Bowl goes from $64,000 to $73,500 and peaks at $110,000 in the final year of the contract.
- Preseason pay for non-rookies is increased from $500 a week to $1,000.
- Players making the Pro Bowl will make $25,000 if they win and $12,500 if they lose, a 150 percent increase.
- Meal money will go from $38 a day to $60 a day for teams on the road. It increases to $70 by the final year of the agreement.