European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 8, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday August 8,1987 the stars and stripes Page 23 commentary football talks focus on free Agency free Agency it a of eight bargaining Priori tics lined by the nil play Cra association but i appears to be the Point on which current contract negotiation will turn. Gene Upshaw executive director of the Union re fuses to separate the issues. We Sec them All As top priority he said. We Are focused on All although the shopping list is Long both sides arc optimistic a settlement can be reached without a fact there is some talk die Union might play the entire season without a contract using that As a device to get the courts to make All players free agents. It is no Accident that Lite Agency Heads the list or Union demand. Other demands include guarantee contracts pension improvements Protection of Union officers from management harassment an improved drag prevention program faster grievance arbitration improvements in benefits and players rights and a Shorter term for tic agreement. For a decade nil players watched their baseball Brethren reap the financial rewards of free Agency. Over that same period Only one football free agent Journeyman defensive Back Norm Thompson successfully moved from one nil team to another. The Union feel the right of first refusal giving nil teams the Opportunity to match any Otter extended to their free agents restrict the marketplace. That is one of the Union targets in negotiations. With football management showing do great inclination to embrace free Agency one strategy being discussed in some training Camps is to Lei the talks go beyond the expiration Date through the entire season in Lac absence of a contract the Union could ask a judge to declare All players free agents a Simil car tactic used by pitchers Andy Messersmith an Dave Mcnally led to the creation of baseball s free agent system in 1976. They have submitted a 12j-Page proposal that contains hundreds of issues said Jack Donlan executive director of the nil management Council bargaining of the league. It is Replete with pro visions to restrict and emasculate the authority of the commissioner. We see the system interrelated including what the commissioner can and can t one of the things commissioner Pete Rozelle no longer can do is set compensation for Stayen leaving one club and moving to another. The Rozelle Rule was declared illegal by the courts and a version of it providing a scale of draft Choice compensation remains in the collective bar gaining agreement. That is another Union target that agreement expires three weeks from Mon Day and with management and Union far apart it i almost impossible for a new contract to be in place by the time the current one runs out. That however apparently does not disturb the two sides. There s no magic about the 31 is of August said Upshaw inducted saturday into the pro football Hall of Fame at Canton Ohio. What you re looking at is an expiration Date. You can go past that with no trouble at these salts almost certainly will do that especially if the Union employs its strategy to play without a contract in the bid for Blanket free Agency. As required by the current contract the Union filed i 6tj-Day notice of termination timing it to coincide with the Nils opening weekend sept. 13. We could not strike until then Upshaw said. Donlan said the unique nature of the Industry makes the contract expiration Date moot aug. 31 snot big Deal he said. It s not meaningful really. In an Industry where you do the same thing monday through Friday december to june the Dale would be More important this Date Mark the end of rain ing Camp but really who would know if there were Astrike sept it with pension credits accrued after three games a More realistic deadline u mid octo Ber. The last contract had an expiration Date of jul is. The strike occurred in late the players Are not particularly militant at this Point. We have not changed our View Upshaw Laid. When nothing else works you strike. You try to resolve pie contract without that. Sometimes you reach a Point in negotiations you get just so far and you need to How strength to push it in. That s when the strike question comes management has its own View of changes that should be written into the new agreement. We Are interested in an entry level wage scale Donlan Are spending too much on untested would that be a give Back i suppose you could argue that it is Donn said. We so it As rearranging the system a Way to better spend the available dollars. The Union is on the same Page but sees an Impact in other the league also is seeking changes in drug testing. Pension and Severance and the automatic 10 percent salary increase paid to players in their option years. I Don t want this to end in a scoreboard kind of thing and people deciding who won and who did to Upshaw said. It should to a win win and although he does t feel particularly pressured by the aug. 31 expiration Date Upshaw said there s a Long Way to go and a Short time to we have met five or six times two or three Days at a time Donlan said. We just finished a week of negotiating in Tampa and Washington. Now we re reviewing our positions and what we be been saying trying to get i better feeling for the issues and the issues within the issues. Think the parties arc working to gel an agreement. We have some difficult issues but the emphasis it on getting a settlement. I m optimistic that Well get it was not always been that Way. Donlan said during 1982 negotiations with then Union Leader de Garvey Liat he thought there would be a walkout before the two sides could reach agreement. There was a 57-Day strike that season. When i came Here in 1980, there were two years left on the agreement but it seemed like a strike was a foregone conclusion he said. Usually a Union uses a strike As a threat a tool to extract More than management wants to give at the last minute. But this was two Yean before expiration. It was like self fulfilling relation Between Donlan and ups Liaw Are significantly More cordial than that. There is no Way this ends in mudslinging be tween Gene Upshaw and Jack Donlan Upshaw said. You separate the personalities from the issues. The problem in t gent Upshaw or Jack Donlan. The problem ii the aug Cittad Pimm Navy scuttles season for raiders Mccallum Washington a the Nav will not allow running Back Napoleon Mccallum to play for the los Angeles raiders this season because he is on Active duly in a letter to Mccallum s agent Williams the special assistant for Legal affairs to Secretary of the Navy Secretary Jama h. Webb jr., said last sea son s arrangement allowing Mccallum Toto play football in his free time will not be repeated. Mccallum will be treated the same As other officers on Active duty and will not be afforded any special accommodations As you requested in order to permit him to play professional football Williams wrote10 Mccallum s agent Darryl Dennis. Mccallum 23t played As a kick returner and Reserve running Back last Teason White stationed in Southern California. The naval Academy graduate has four years remaining on a five year commitment and is currently assigned to the California in Alameda Calif., As an Ensign. Mccallum said thursday night that he Felt cheated by the new ruling. I Don t like to have to defend my self he said. I feel everything i be done was in vain to was t appreciated. I put a lot of Effort and time m ensuring that what i did Tut year would work. From Alt indications it did work. Every body is Happy except the new Secretary.1 Dennis said be will fight the ruling saying we fed they have repudiated commitment made to Napoleon and that they Are isolating him solely because he s an athlete and because of his High visibility this is not the end of the Issue. If the Secretary wants a confrontation from me hell get Dennis said he made his request to the Navy after what he called verbal commitments from High ranking Navy officers. He also said former Navy Secretary John Lehman had approved in concept an internal memorandum Sug Gesting Mccallum be assigned to a ship in Long Beach Calif. Dennis said the memo Flora vice . Dudley Carlso said Mccallum s play for the raiders was legally Lehman approved the arrangement last season As Long As my Calums foot Ball playing did not interfere with his Navy duties. Williams in the letter that Dennis received thursday said ii u difficult to undo Tod Why Ensign Mccallum would have relied on that document As commitment regarding his professional football career since Secretary Lehman approval of the memo specifically provided that while on Active duly. Ensign Mcc Utun i association with the raiders cannot include competing in games " clearly the . In that memorandum hive changed to the extent that it he no to the present Litti Alion Williams wrote. Ensign Kapok in Mccallon. Everything was in vain Williams said Mccallum could submit a resignation request and ask for Reserve status to fulfil his commitment to the Navy but wrote that such requests Are normally Mccallum Laid be believes ski dunces of changing hit status Are he Laid that whip recruiting people i be Laid. They give you a Chance and it t a great place to be,1 1 guess now i Don t Odieve what i be told people i fed i be milled rams in in Dickerson wont trades by the associated press com crack Leroy Irvin wants to betrayed especially since learning where his salary ranks compared with other nil defensive backs. And Irvin is not atone among the upset rams. Eric Dickerson wants Trade because at 1683,000, he s not in the top 10 wage earners among running backs. A recent salary poll of the 45 lop paid cornerback and safeties did not include Irvin who started for the National con Ference in last Winter s pro bowl. I be that Good because 45 Guys make More than me he told the los Angeles times. Tincy expect you to be All pro and then pay you like a Irvin has t practice with the rams since ending a six Day holdout. That holdout was to show dissatisfaction Over Deal he signed in March that extended his contract through this season am sports television pro football Hall of fun game san Francisco n. Kansas City at Catt to okie 6 . Saturday. Radio baseball new York Wamke at de troit 9 12 a. Sat Fajr. Of mud at Minnesota 3 . Sundej
