01:00 AM EST on Thursday, February 23, 2006

BY TOM E. CURRAN
Journal Sports Writer

With NFL owners squabbling among themselves over money issues and the owners and NFL Players Association (NFLPA) trying to hammer out an extension of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), a thick cloud of uncertainty hangs over the most important player acquisition period -- free agency and the draft.

Rhetoric on the issues has been traded for nearly two years, but effects of the impasses haven't been seen by the general public. But now that the issues threaten to postpone the start of free agency, that may change.

Free agency is scheduled to begin March 3, but if an agreement between the owners and NFLPA isn't reached, the 2007 season will be an "uncapped" year. For a league that's been living with a hard salary cap for more than a decade, a lifting of the cap means chaos and bad news for both sides.

At issue between the players and owners is determining the percentage of defined gross revenues (DGR) that goes to the players. Right now, the number is 64 percent. NFLPA president Gene Upshaw said he wants it to remain in the sixties. There are other fine-print aspects to be worked out, but there's optimism that something may break this week. The NFL Combine is being held in Indianapolis, and owners, coaches, personnel chiefs and agents all will be well represented.

But getting the players to agree to the new CBA is only the first step. Once that's done, the league's owners need to hammer out their own issues. As it stands now, the league's 32 teams share the lion's share of their revenues, including television, merchandising and ticket sales. Money generated locally, such as parking, local television and radio and luxury suites, is not shared. Teams that don't make big money in those arenas, such as Cincinnati and Arizona, want to see the league's more successful teams, such as New England, Dallas and Washington, share more of those monies.

Owners of those franchises -- the Krafts included -- are vehemently opposed to sharing more than they already do.

So until the owners can decide what revenues are to be designated to share with the players, there can be no deal.

It's been theorized that once the NFLPA agrees to the proposed CBA and it goes back before the owners for final approval, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue will tell the owners that, in order to ratify the CBA, they must be in agreement on how they are to share their revenues going forward.

And that's when it's going to get hairy among the owners.

But for practical purposes, the confusion that will reign if free agency begins without a new CBA in place makes everyone in the league leery of entering that phase.

Said agent Tom Mills, who represents soon-to-be-free agent lineman Tom Ashworth, "I don't think the football people (in organizations) know any better than we do how to approach this if it's not worked out. If pushing back the start of free agency means that the CBA will be worked out, then I think everyone will be in support of that."

Lots of golf for Brady

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had surgery to repair his sports hernia last week, according to reports. The procedure was not dire enough to keep Brady off the golf course. He's playing in Dan Marino's Celebrity Golf Invitational in Miami this week.

This is the third event Brady's played in since the offseason began. He played in the AT&T Invitational Pro-Am at Pebble Beach earlier this month, and in a tournament hosted by Michael Jordan in January.

Quick kicks

Patriots corners Tyrone Poole and Duane Starks pose significant cap issues to the team in the coming months. Poole has a roster bonus in the neighborhood of $500,000 coming due early next month. Starks is on the books to make $3.65 million in salary and has a signing bonus hit of $1.5 million in 2006. Both players had poor 2005 seasons and finished the year on injured reserve. Starks' agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said Starks' rehab is coming along well but declined to comment on "any player under contract." Poole's agent, Hadley Engelhard, did not return a call seeking comment on Poole's situation for the upcoming season. . . . Ty Law, cut by the Jets yesterday, said in an e-mail he wouldn't comment on the chances of returning to the Patriots.

tcurran@projo.com / (401) 277-7340