DALLAS (AP)—Go ahead and add franchise tags to the lengthy list of issues the NFL and its players disagree about.
The league is telling clubs they can place that designation on players whose contracts are expiring, even if there’s no new collective bargaining agreement to replace the one that ends March 3. The union is telling agents the NFL is wrong about that.
The franchise tag allows a team to prevent one player from becoming an unrestricted free agent.
Union executive director DeMaurice Smith said Thursday “if there is no CBA, the franchise tags will be meaningless.”
Smith said there are fundamental disagreements between owners and players on how to draw up a new CBA. The two sides are scheduled to have their first formal bargaining session in more than two months on Saturday.
