No Deal For Peyton Manning Expected Anytime Soon

Added on Feb 28, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

Indianapolis Colts’ owner Jim Irsay has made no secret about his desire to extend the contract of quarterback Peyton Manning and make him the highest paid quarterback in history. The expectation was that a deal would be in place before now but despite the best efforts of both sides to ‘beat the clock’ on the expiration of the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA) it looks like nothing will be finalized anytime soon. The CBA expires at the end of the day on Thursday, and the negotiations on a new agreement are expected to take some time–to the extent that some apocalyptic scenarios have been floated that the labor situation could delay or cancel the 2011 NFL season.

The Colts’ put the ‘franchise player’ tag on Manning last week as a pre-emptive measure to keep him from testing the free agent market. In theory, the designation prevents him from negotiating with other teams. The question, however, is whether or not the entire concept will be enforceable without a collective bargaining agreement in place. The owners say that the franchise tag sticks after the CBA expires, the players thing otherwise as Manning’s agent Tom Condon notes:

“The players association and the management council have different interpretations about whether you can franchise any player. We really don’t know what it means, and the players don’t recognize the tag.”

The good news is that the two sides have been talking according to Condon:

“We’re having conversations so that’s a positive. But I would agree with [Colts Vice Chairman Bill Polian] that nothing’s imminent.”

The bad news–if the owners decide to pursue a ‘lockout’ of the players that could come to a halt. If there is a lockout, free agents cannot sign with other teams, players and team officials cannot communicate and teams can’t even negotiate with agents of their own players. Condon doesn’t sound concerned about the expiration of the CBA:

“Certainly it would be nice to have it done by then. But I don’t think there’s any real urgency.”

Manning isn’t the only Colts’ player in contractual limbo–once there’s a new CBA in place running back Joseph Addai could become a free agent. His agent, Ben Dogra, expressed his client’s desire to remain in Indianapolis:

“Nothing yet, but he’d like to come back to Indy. We’ll explore everything, but this is all in limbo because of the lockout, so I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

For his part, Colt’s Vice Chairman Bill Polian is going to proceed in a ‘business as usual’ manner until he’s given a reason to do otherwise:

“We’re presuming it’s business as usual. If that changes, we have a plan.”

The Colts clearly don’t want to lose Manning, but there are some of the opinion that they’re deliberately waiting out the expiration of the CBA in hopes that they’ll be able to lock up their franchise quarterback for less money.