N.F.L. strike ends; union off to court

Press, 17 October 1987, Page 80

N.F.L. strike ends; union off to court

NZPA-AP New York Professional football — the real thing — is back. Not this week-end, for the most part, but next weekend for sure.

The 24-day-old strike by the N.F.L. Players’ Association finished when the union ended its walkout without a contract agreement and opted instead to try to win its objectives in the courts. Waves of players returned to practice sites only to find that owners were not yielding on a 1 p.m. Wednesday deadline by which players . must have reported in order to get paid for this week. That means that for the

third week-end fans will have to settle for replacement football.

This week’s variety will feature teams with as many as 26 regular players who crossed the picket lines to teams composed completely of replacement players.

“It was unfair to the players to continue to sacrifice any more,” the union head, Gene Upshaw, said after player representatives from all 28 teams voted to end their strike.

Upshaw also said the union had filed an antitrust suit in Minneapolis.

The suit asks that the court throw out the col-

lege draft as well as the league’s system of free agent compensation and right of first refusal for teams threatened with losing players.

It also asks that it void all player contracts signed after September 16, 1987, most of which are the contracts with the replacement players. Free agency — which would allow players to change teams when their contracts expired — was the main issue in the strike.

The management council executive committee said in a statement it would have no comment until it had read the suit.