Steve Bulpett: Agents Cause Opening Of Training Camps To Be Delayed

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

Kudos to Patricia Bender for first mentioning the possibility of a
delay.


Sources on the players' side have told Steve Bulpett that union
attorneys,
who are "working with the league to get last week's agreement in
principle
on a landmark collective bargaining deal to paper, are stalling the
process."

Now training camps, may not open until next Friday, although the league
says
it will be Tuesday.  According to one of Bulpett's sources, the union
read so
much about how the deal favored the owners, that they are attempting to 
renegotiate the agreement.  The league refuses to abide by the union's
wishes, so the process has been slowed.

Boston-based agent, Fred Catapano, expressing some "displeasure" with
the
delay, had this to say: "'It's very clear that the players want to play 
and that everyone has a deal and what it is... They should knock it
off.  
This shouldn't be a problem.'"

In other petulant Union news, they decewrtified dissident agent Stephen
Woods
who questioned Union leadership during the lockout.
Ray