Although the CBA doesn’t expire until after the 2007 season, the ramifications of that possibility are very much in the present realm.

"Everybody’s worried about it," Denver Broncos coach Mike Shanahan says. "Everybody is feeling this. You’ve got to have two plans — a plan for a CBA and for no CBA. It’s a big difference in those two. Then, if there’s no CBA reached, when does it happen? The middle of March? Next year? Everybody has to get ready for no CBA being reached. Not many people realize what the impact will be."

Representatives of the Management Council and the Players Association will continue negotiating sessions Tuesday and Wednesday. But the two sides have bargained for more than two years without securing a new pact, and NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw said Sunday that he’s "very pessimistic" about talks that have yielded virtually no progress for months.

Besides differences in how much of the revenue players will receive, Upshaw sees a rift between owners in revising their own revenue- and cost-sharing model as a major sticking point.

"We’re running out of time," Upshaw said during a telephone interview. "I’m at my bottom line. I have nowhere else to go. I’ve said for years that the only thing that would prevent us from getting a deal was if one side gets greedy. Well, they’ve gotten greedy."

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello refused comment Sunday. During a Super Bowl news conference this month, Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said, "There needs to be an additional dose of realities, on both sides of the table."

If a deal isn’t struck before March 3 — which is dependent on progress this week — it lays the groundwork for 2007 becoming an uncapped year as stipulated by the current CBA.

An uncapped year threatens to disrupt competitive balance and skew the market. It would also limit some players who now might be eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2007; in an uncapped scenario, players would suddenly need six years, rather than four, to be eligible to be unrestricted free agents.

Upshaw contends the players wouldn’t go back to a salary-cap system. "Once the players get something, I’m never going to ask them to take less," he said.

More immediate effects will be triggered if the 2006 season is the last "capped" year on the books. Consider:

• Bonuses would be limited to proration against the cap of four years, compared with as many as seven years in the past.

"Obviously, if you prorate it over a shorter time, the signing bonus won’t be as high," said New Orleans Saints center LeCharles Bentley, due to become a free agent. "But teams, players, owners and agents can all get creative."

• Certain incentive clauses would count against the cap, expected to be $92 million to $95 million a team, rather than carried over to 2007.

"The lawyers who thought of these processes in 1993 were geniuses," St. Louis-based agent Ben Dogra said. "They put in these pressure points that squeeze the players and the teams. They said, ‘Everybody’s going to wait until the last minute to get a deal done, so we’re going to force these guys to negotiate.’ "

• With less flexible salary caps, free agency is expected to be bearish — Shanahan believes the market will be flooded with more talented players exposed as cap casualties than in previous years. Some teams will be hard-pressed just to get under the salary cap by March 3. "If you do not have an extension, it’s tighter for everyone," Houston Texans GM Charley Casserly said.

Upshaw scoffs at speculation that the league’s calendar year might be pushed back a few weeks to allow additional time to strike a new CBA.

"There’s no reason to push anything back," he said.

The bigger issue is whether the parties Upshaw and Tagliabue represent will agree enough to keep future seasons’ schedules intact.

Aikman: Favre will retire

Troy Aikman believes the Green Bay Packers’ struggles probably will drive Brett Favre into retirement.

"I’d hate to see him retire," Aikman told the Associated Press on Sunday. "But I know that going out and having seasons like what he went through this past year is really frustrating and it just isn’t much fun. So I don’t know what he’s going to do. I think the fact that he is having a hard time making the decision, in some ways, that kind of has made the decision for him."

Favre hasn’t said whether he’ll return to the Packers, who are coming off a 4-12 season, their only losing season under Favre.

Aikman, a Fox TV analyst, hasn’t spoken with Favre since the end of the season but is one of several high-profile former quarterbacks Favre has asked for advice on retirement. "Over the years, Brett and I have talked a lot about kind of what happened at the end of my career, kind of where he’s at right now," Aikman said.

Despite losing to eventual Super Bowl champs Pittsburgh, Peyton Manning will once again lead Indianapolis’ charge and fans are confident the team will return at full strength next season, wiser and more experienced.

"The Colts still have the best QB in football and some people think too much attention and focus was put on their run for a perfect season. They never seemed to regroup after their first loss and the personal tragedies that befell Tony Dungy," said Alex Czajkowski, Marketing Director, Sportsbook.com.

"There’s no reason to believe, at this point, that bettors will sour on the Colts. They’ll be backing Indianapolis again next year."

In the NFC, the Seattle Seahawks are tied with the Carolina Panthers to take the conference title at odds of 7-2. Chicago, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia and Washington are in hot pursuit at 7-1. Indianapolis is the favorite at 2-1 in the AFC followed by the Steelers at 9-2 and Denver, New England and San Diego all at 6-1.

"There could still be some huge factors that could shift the odds in coming months", added Czajkowski. "Possible trades, the unknown injury status of Donovan McNabb and the always unpredictable Terrell Owens could all change the landscape significantly."

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