Gene Upshaw Proposal Quotations

If we are having a difficult time reaching an agreement now, I don't want to imagine what it could be like in 2006 and 2007. If they don't like our proposal now, they really won't like it then.

The NFL negotiators called us tonight to indicate that they will take our complete package to the owners for an approval vote on Tuesday. We have therefore agreed to extend the free agent deadline until midnight Wednesday in order to provide time for that vote to be accomplished. It was the NFL's previous rejection of our proposal earlier this evening that caused the talks to break down.

It's beginning to sound like that movie 'Groundhog Day.' They give us the same thing over and over and over. Their last proposal to us was totally unacceptable. You see what happened to hockey. Now basketball is moving in the same direction. I don't see us as being too far off the pace from those two. For some reason, the owners have not moved the ball at all.

They've taken the concept of designated gross revenue and changed it to total football revenue and basically come up with the same amount they're paying the players now, ... They have not made a proposal to us since we started this whole process. All they say is, 'We reject whatever you want.' Then they say what we want is too much. . . . Once we get to March 2006, when the league calendar starts, as far as we're concerned there's no need to make a deal. If that's what they want, we'll go there too.

They gave me a proposal that is actually less than what we're getting. All we want is our share that we've been getting.

They gave us a new proposal, which was worse than their prior offer. Quite naturally, we rejected that proposal and saw no need to continue meeting.

It's absolutely crazy. We're like the gang that can't shoot straight. I would never have agreed to move the deadline unless they acceded to my financial conditions. I want to go to bed, too. But once they agreed to take our proposal to the owners, I had no choice.