NFL, union wrangle publicly on CBA

WASHINGTON (AP) - The NFL's willingness to reduce the amount of extra money owners want up front - from $1 billion to $800 million - isn't enough to produce a new labor deal, the head of the players' union said Wednesday, insisting that the league hasn't offered to turn over enough financial data.

Both sides spoke much more openly about money matters Wednesday than they have since they entered mediation Feb. 18. With the collective bargaining agreement set to expire Friday, they clearly are far apart on how to divide more than $9 billion in annual revenues.

On his way into the 14th session at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, NFL lead negotiator Jeff Pash said the issue of financial transparency - a key sticking point - "really should be behind us."

"We've made more information available in the course of this negotiation than has ever been made available in decades of collective bargaining with the NFLPA," Pash said. "Far more information. And we've offered to make even more information (available), including information that we do not disclose to our own clubs."

But when NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith left for the day after about eight hours of talks, he called the data the NFL offered to provide "utterly meaningless." It was rejected, the union said, because it didn't include material requested nearly two years ago by Smith in a letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell.