NFL union decertifies and lockout begins

WASHINGTON -- Let the NFL's labor war begin.

After nearly three weeks of intensive talks before a federal mediator, the NFL and the NFL Players Association were unable to come to terms on a collective-bargaining agreement, prompting the union to decertify late Friday and set in motion a series of legal maneuvers that could shut down the league for months.

The NFL Management Council's executive committee was to meet Friday night, and one member of the committee -- Giants president and co-owner John Mara -- indicated the group was leaning toward a lockout. NFL.com reported early Saturday morning that the lockout began at midnight EST. It is the NFL's first work stoppage since the 1987 players' strike.

Ten NFL players, including quarterbacks Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady and Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora, filed a lawsuit Friday afternoon in district court in Minneapolis to, among other things, attack the league's antitrust exemption and seek to overturn the use of the salary cap and the franchise tag. A request on behalf of the players for an immediate injunction also was filed in an attempt to prevent a lockout. It is uncertain when a ruling on the injunction will be made. If the injunction is granted, it could force the league to resume operations.

"As you know, the union walked away from the mediation process today to decertify," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said. "We do believe that mediation is the fairest and fastest way to reach an agreement that works for the players and for the clubs. And we believe that ultimately, this is going to be negotiated at the negotiating table."

NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said the NFL never came close enough to a deal that was palatable for the players, even though the gap narrowed significantly Friday. The league had asked the union for a $1-billion exemption from the NFL's annual $9 billion in revenues, but by late Friday, it had reduced that request to about $325 million.

"As businessmen, we asked the owners two years ago to consider two basic tenets to getting a fair deal: financial transparency and the health and safety of our players," Smith said. "Even until the last moment, we were rebuffed. As for health and safety, that's a non-negotiable issue. To our players, I will not ever yield on this point. There is no price tag for your arms, legs, backs, necks, shoulders and brains."

Mara, a member of the owners' negotiating committee, said: "I've been here for the better part of two weeks now, and essentially during that two-week period, the union's position on the core economic issues has not changed one iota. Their position has quite literally been 'take it or leave it,' and in effect, they have been at the same position since last September."

Jeff Pash, the NFL's lead negotiator, also criticized the union for its intransigence.

"I said [Thursday] that an agreement could be reached if there was a shared commitment on both sides," Pash said. "I was disappointed, and all of us were disappointed that at the very time we were face-to- face with the union and its executive committee, they had already made the decision to decertify their union. So I think we know where the commitment was. It was a commitment to litigate, as we said all along."

Pash outlined a number of offers the NFL made that were rejected, including playing a 16-game regular season in 2011 and 2012 and not expanding to an 18-game season without an agreement from the players; limiting full-contact practices in the preseason and regular season; a guarantee of up to $1 million of a player's salary for the contract year after an injury occurs; and an offer to have all players remain in the league's medical plan for life. Pash also said the league offered retired players a major increase in benefits.

NFLPA outside counsel Jim Quinn took issue with Pash's account of events. "I hate to say this, but he has not told the truth to our players or our fans," Quinn said. "He has, in a word, lied to them about what happened today and what's happened over the last two weeks and the last two years."