NFL labor waters seem to be going against flow

If you’re Gene Upshaw, you should be a little concerned about the way the labor waters have been flowing lately.

The NFL and its players have a labor agreement ending after the 2007 season. Upshaw, a former player and current director of the players association, has seen labor peace exist for years — since the players’ strike in 1987, to be exact.

But now, serious issues are afoot. Like everyone else, the players want more money — specifically, a bigger share of the total revenues the NFL generates. And if Upshaw looks toward the other major sports for examples of support, he sees … trouble.

The NHL is, of course, the classic current case. Hockey players had their game shut down for a whole season in a debate about how the financial aspects of the sport should be handled. The result? Both sides lost money and fans due to a year of inactivity, but the owners ended up getting pretty much what they wanted in implementing a new cost-control system they claim is best for the sport. The players are pretty sure the new system isn’t best for them, considering it rolled back overall salaries 24 percent.

Or how about baseball and its recent steroid debate? The general fan reaction was hostile enough that, combined with potential government intervention, Commissioner Bud Selig was able to push Players Association chief Donald Fehr in his direction when it came to a new, stricter form of drug testing and suspensions.

The current labor agreement comes due at the end of the year. Baseball players in the past 30 years became the prime sports example of how to rob team owners blind, but that trend has faded, and there’s little doubt that owners will seek more cost controls.

It seems like every time NBA players go to the bargaining table lately, they meet with Commissioner David Stern and end up looking like they were fleeced. In the most recent negotiations this past summer, the players got their percentage of league revenues bumped up a few points — certainly a positive — but they also ended up with a new dress code and an age limit for entries into the draft, among other owner-backed measures.

Let’s put it another way: There’s no way Stern would have been named Sporting News’ most powerful person in sports recently if the players had scored a major victory against him at the bargaining table.

Now ponder the NFL, a sport in which few contracts are guaranteed and careers are generally short. That combination makes the desire for more money, understandable, but Upshaw has his work cut out for him. He’s had a generally good working relationship with Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.

Maybe Upshaw will be able to divert the river that is seemingly running against pro players these days. The problem is, he also has to worry about being pulled under by a flash flood.