Unsettled Times for NFL Free Agents

These are uncertain times for the NFL as it operates amid the national economic crisis and possibly faces a labor confrontation between owners and players. Layoffs and other cost-cutting measures have become commonplace even in a league that has been the country's most prosperous sport for decades.

Opinion within the league is divided about what effect those economic conditions will have with the opening of the unrestricted free agent market after midnight tonight. The prevailing sentiment seems to be most teams will spend cautiously, but that might not be immediately evident because the best available players probably will sign quickly and land highly lucrative contracts.

"At some point I think it hurts the second wave of free agency," Tennessee Titans General Manager Mike Reinfeldt said during the just-completed NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. "I'm not sure it impacts the major . . . big players. I think it's the second wave. I think the door is going to close much quicker. When all the crazy deals are getting done -- if before it was two or three weeks, maybe it is a week now. I think the whole thing shuts down much quicker. . . . I think the money is tighter, and at some point [teams] are much more frugal with their money."

This year's class of unrestricted free agents has its headliners, such as Titans defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis and Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner. If Reinfeldt is right, they'll get their money, but other players could find the going tougher.

"There are real economic worries and problems out there in the real world," Green Bay Packers General Manager Ted Thompson said at the scouting combine. "I don't think football is immune to it. I think all of us in positions of management have to kind of consider that as we go forward. We don't know what the end of this economic cycle is going to be, and I would suspect that every organization [and] every owner is in a little bit different position than the next. In terms of predicting if it will affect how things are done in free agency, I'm not smart enough to know that."

Sports business experts have said the NFL remains on solid economic footing over the long haul, with national television contracts worth about $3.7 billion per season. But that doesn't mean the league isn't feeling the financial strain. The NFL confirmed yesterday it has reduced its workforce by 15 percent, and Commissioner Roger Goodell took a voluntary 20 percent pay cut from the $11 million he was to receive in salary and bonuses for this past year.

The league has eliminated 169 of approximately 1,100 staff positions at its central offices in New York, NFL Films in New Jersey and its television production site in Los Angeles. Goodell and other NFL executives have frozen their salaries for this year, the Associated Press reported.

Several franchises have announced layoffs, and teams now face the prospect of trying to sell tickets and sponsorships for next season to fans and companies with far less money than usual.

"We want to be sure we have enough money in the bank to cover the check," New York Giants General Manager Jerry Reese said in Indianapolis. "We're being very cautious and making sure everything is in order for us to [write] some big checks."

The players receive about 60 percent of league revenue under the NFL's salary cap system. Each team has a player payroll minimum as well as a maximum under the salary cap system, so spending on players certainly won't cease. But the NFL salary cap isn't a hard ceiling on players' salaries. Teams can rework contracts, clear salary cap space and find ways to spend more money on players, so there is plenty of leeway within the system.

"It will be different from team to team," said Scott Pioli, the recently hired general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs who was the architect of three Super Bowl-winning clubs as the front-office chief of the New England Patriots. "Different teams have different situations and different cash-flow situations regardless of what the economic situation is."

The added uncertainty for the NFL is the looming threat of a work stoppage in 2011 after the owners voted last year to opt out of their labor deal with the players two years early, making the 2010 season the final one in the existing agreement and next season the final one with a salary cap.

But executives said that hasn't changed drastically the formula for this free agent market. Players and their agents always wanted as much money as possible in the early years of contracts, the executives said, and that's still the case.

And as always, some teams will take an approach of spending to make money. Ravens General Manager Ozzie Newsome said at the scouting combine that his franchise's owner, Steve Bisciotti, has that outlook as the club attempts to re-sign Lewis and fellow free agent linebacker Bart Scott.

"We feel like if you win, you can get people in the stands," Newsome said. "If we're going to spend money, we're going to spend money on acquiring players. That's Steve's philosophy because if you're winning, you have a chance to balance your books as we did this year getting to the AFC championship game."