Posted on Sat, May. 17, 2008

NFL NOTEBOOK

NFL owners may opt out of contract

Associated Press

NEW YORK --

NFL owners could opt out of their agreement with the players union next week, leaving open the possibility of a 2010 season without a salary cap.

The labor agreement is on the agenda for the league meetings in Atlanta on Tuesday.

"If they don't do it next week then it will be soon after that," Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Association, said Friday. "They want to opt out and we don't."

In the agreement signed in March of 2006, both sides were given the right to get out of the deal by Nov. 8, 2008. League officials noted that doesn't mean a decision could not be made earlier.

That contract was due to expire at the end of the 2013 season.

If the owners nullify it, a move that has seemed inevitable for a while, it would end after the 2011 season with 2010 being uncapped.

Elsewhere

NEW ENGLAND: Coach Bill Belichick lashed out at the team's former video assistant, saying in a televised interview that Matt Walsh was a low-level staffer who was fired for "poor job performance."

"There's not a lot of credibility," Belichick said in an interview broadcast on the "CBS Evening News."

"You know, he's tried to make it seem like we're buddies, and belong to the same book club and all. That's really a long, long stretch."

• INDIANAPOLIS: Peyton Manning is withholding judgment on teammate Marvin Harrison and the star receiver's legal issues. Harrison has been interviewed by police about a shooting near his North Philadelphia car wash last month, but hasn't been arrested or charged.