Cap May Extend To 110 Million

Cap May Extend To 110 Million
http://www.boston.com/sports/footba...e_fails/?page=2
It's crunch time in labor negotiations

Meetings have begun between representatives of the Players Association and the Management Council and will continue next week with the hope that the framework for an extension of the collective bargaining agreement will be in place by late February.

Technically, an extension would have to be in place by the start of the new league year on March 3 or problems would arise; agents would be faced with making deals for this year's free agents with only a four-year amortization period for bonuses, and some franchises would be forced to all but gut their teams because of salary cap problems, according to league sources on both sides of the issue.

''A number of teams would go into severe cap trouble if there's no extension," said a league source. ''A team like the Colts would have to blow their team up. And for agents, it will be hard to get a true market deal. Not hard. It would be impossible.

''The good news is, the way the system was designed the last year without an extension is very painful for both sides. Hopefully that will promote rational behavior on both sides. As we get closer to D-Day, people start to think more clearly on both sides."

Management has begun to put together some guaranteed cap numbers beginning at $110 million and swelling to $160 million six years later. Twelve years ago, when the salary cap era began, the first cap was around $36 million.