CBA on frontburner
With the salary cap rising from $85.5 million per team two years ago to $116 million this year, owners' heads are spinning. just before the new Collective Bargaining Agreement being passed 24 months ago to $116 million this year, owners heads are spinning. The players' union has the upper hand financially, and the owners seem pointed toward opting out of the deal, which is just two years old. Owners will vote in November, and 24 need to agree to stay in it.

“We are doing a tremendous amount of analsyis around the league agreement to understand the true impact of the deal,” Goodell said. “The thing we are starting to realize is that it has swung considerably toward the players. We're doing our analysis to understand the ramifications of that.”

NFLPA head Gene Usphaw said at the Super Bowl that the union won't give back the gains they made financially. Goodell said there will be talks before the November deadline with the union about ways to solve what the owners perceive to be an imbalance.

Although Upshaw has said the owners need to get their revenue-sharing model straightened out among themselves before coming to the players, Goodell disputed that.

“It is clearly between the owners and the union at this point,” the commissioner said. “I think the owners have analyzed this and have a very strong collective view toward this. We knew when we entered this CBA that the pendulum would swing the way of the players. We just didn’t know how much how fast.”

Squib kicks
Super headaches: Winning a Super Bowl brings headaches. Free-agent players light out for more lucrative deals elsewhere, and many of the players who stay suddenly see their deals in a different light. Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora may hold out of training camp, the New York Daily News reported this week. Umenyiora’s agent, Tony Agnone, denied that was the case and Jerry Reese, the Giants GM, said Monday, “I expect Osi to be fine. I don’t expect a holdout from Osi, no.”

As for dealing with those issues that success seems to bring, Reese said, “If you win a Super Bowl and start having problems, they’re good problems to have. We just deal with them daily as they come. Situations arise. My office is kind of like the fire department. We put out fires every day. That’s what I do. I make decisions that are sometimes unpopular decisions. There’s a fire every day.”

Reese also said that it’s his “gut feeling” that veteran defensive end Michael Strahan will return for the 2008 season.

Super headaches, part 2: Patriots owner Robert Kraft was also asked about dealing with the aftereffects of the Super Bowl loss to the Giants.

“As a team, this was probably the best team we’ve had in the 14 years I’ve been the owner in terms of performance,” he said. “But the strength of the NFL is the best team doesn’t always win. We had a lot invested emotionally in that game, and it’s a great tribute to the Giants to what they accomplished. We came within 30 seconds of having an unbelievable season. Something that probably won’t be replicated in my lifetime. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t close the order, but I have great respect for what the Giants accomplished.

"I think of that last regular-season game (a 38-35 New England win), and I think that was the catalyst for them to have the great success they had in the playoffs. What they did in the last minute and a half of the Super Bowl was amazing and unfortunately we’ll be living with that. This is a no-excuse business. In the end, it’s all what the score is. You win or you don’t win and you have to carry on. In the end, they were the better team.”

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