• Originally published January 16, 2010 at 5:30 p.m., updated January 16, 2010 at 5:33 p.m.

(EDITORS: This story is embargoed for Web use until 1 a.m. EDT.)

By Greg A. Bedard

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

(MCT)

As the NFL has been barreling toward a year without a salary cap in 2010 — and a potential lockout by the owners in 2011 — a lot has been written and said about how it will affect the players.

Unrestricted free agency gets pushed from four to six years, so eight Green Bay Packers — including starters Nick Collins, Johnny Jolly, Daryn Colledge, John Kuhn and Atari Bigby — stand to lose a ton of money should they have to remain restricted free agents for at least another year.

It's also believed many teams will cut player costs (there won't be a salary floor, either) to save money for a lockout in 2011, when none of the players will be paid.

So, yeah, the players are in a tough spot. That's the way the owners want it. The easier it will be to get a better deal for themselves.

But there are others that in many respects will be hit harder in '11 and beyond. Obviously, there's the local businesses that depend on football and team employees who could face furloughs or be laid off completely if there is a lockout.

But in the football world, the ones set up to take the hardest hit are assistant coaches.

Most coaching staffs run with contracts through the next season, so nearly all have contracts through '10. But negotiations have been going on since the end of the season about contracts for '11.

And assistant coaches, by and large, are getting a raw deal.

Owners are putting language in new contracts that not only calls for up to a 50 percent wage reduction in the event of a lockout, but the right for the team to terminate the coach without further payment past 60 days.

"Oh, I think it's horrible," said Larry Kennan, who represents assistant coaches as executive director of the NFL Coaches Association. "We're not involved in the work stoppage. The club is telling us 'we're not going to allow you to work, therefore we're going to cut your pay.' You don't like it, it's not right.

"They are the ones who are talking about lockouts, not us, and it's not the players — it's management. They say we're management and yet they don't consult us on that."

Kennan said the same language is showing up in multiple contracts across the league:

A team can impose a 25 percent reduction of salary in the event of a lockout;

A team has a right to terminate without further pay upon 60 days notice;

If the lockout extends to 90 days, teams can impose a 50 percent salary reduction or right of termination.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league wasn't in a position to comment.

"It is up to the clubs. They are the employers," Aiello wrote in an e-mail. "Everyone in management is going to be affected if we end up with labor problems."

Coach Mike McCarthy and the Packers were supposed to start performance evaluations this week for their assistants. But, according to sources, that has been pushed back a week so the team can formulate the wording in their contracts for the potential lockout.

The Packers' stated organizational policy is not to comment on contracts, whether it be for executives, players or coaches. When asked for a comment, a spokesman said the organization did not want to break precedent.

Based on his past dealings with the team, Kennan has hopes the Packers will not ask for pay cuts from their coaches.

"I would guess the Packers would be as kind to their coaches as anybody in the league because they always are," Kennan said. "They've always been very fair to coaches in their dealings with them. Starting eight years ago, they've in many cases called me to find out what the going rate is for coaches so they can pay their guys fairly. So I would think they would be fair if anybody would be."

The lockout language is the second big hit assistant coaches have taken in the past year.

At the league meetings in May, NFL owners passed a resolution that allowed the 32 teams to opt out of a uniform pension plan. The plan was a huge incentive for many coaches to stay in the NFL, where coaches work long hours all year.

When the NFL allowed teams to opt out, nine almost immediately did. And several longtime coaches, such as Howard Mudd and Tom Moore of the Indianapolis Colts, decided to retire and not risk having their benefits cut (Mudd and Moore returned as consultants).

The Packers, up to this point, have stayed in the plan.

"They've held their ground so far," Kennan said of the Packers. "But we expect another huge group of teams — maybe all — to opt out this coming March."

Assistant coaches who have been retained by their current team don't have much leverage to fight the new language. The assistants in the best position are currently being hired to new staffs or being pursued to replace coaches who have been fired.

"There are a number of coaches that have refused to sign contracts with lockout clauses in them," Kennan said. "And if a coach has enough guts and/or clout, then he can do that. But the average guy isn't going to do it because his wife is going to say, 'You're going to sign that contract, whatever it says.' "

Since they've been successful and loyal, Packers assistants don't have any leverage should the team try to alter their future contracts. So it will be interesting to see what the Packers do in the next week.

Hopefully, they will do the right thing and not even broach the possibility of cutting their assistants' pay. The Packers should not follow the lead of some of their opportunistic colleagues who have or will use the lockout as an excuse to cut costs, just like they did in the economic downturn.

While assistants make more than the average person, they also have families and college tuitions to pay for. Those expenses don't go away during a lockout.

Assistants work extremely long hours, even in the off-season, and operate under intense pressure. Teams should honor what they promised to pay them, lockout or no lockout.

Moss still hot prospect

Compared to last year, this off-season has been quiet for Packers assistant head coach/inside linebackers Winston Moss .

Last year he interviewed for the head coaching positions for both the Oakland Raiders and St. Louis Rams. The jobs went to Tom Cable and Steve Spanuolo, respectively.

Moss hasn't had any interviews this year, but that could change if the Raiders fire Cable in the coming week. Two league sources said Moss is on the short list — if not the front-runner — for the job should owner Al Davis fire Cable.

Moss played linebacker for the Raiders from 1991-'94, and the Raiders were impressed with Moss during his interview last year.

Before Mike Holmgren decided to retain coach Eric Mangini in Cleveland, Moss also was on the list of possible replacements for Mangini, according to a source with knowledge of the Browns' process.

Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers said during the season that Moss, the lone defensive staff holdover from 2008, was instrumental in helping the players adapt from the former scheme to the 3-4. That experience with Capers and the 3-4 only enhances Moss' resume.

Veteran players also have lauded Moss' teaching ability and in-game intensity.

___

(c) 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Visit JSOnline, the Journal Sentinel's World Wide Web site, at http://www.jsonline.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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