Bill Haber, Associated Press TRASH TALKING -- Just because people are preoccupied with cleaning up after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans doesn't mean they haven't noticed that Saints owner Tom Benson is making noise about moving the team out of the city. A photographer found this sign along the curb waiting for the garbage men to arrive. Click photo for larger image. Related Story: Ed Bouchette's Short Snaps: 10/30/05

Gene Upshaw visited the Steelers Thursday and the NFL Players Association head issued a dire notice:

"We're not any closer than we were the last time I saw you."

That last time was April 5, when Upshaw, commissioner Paul Tagliabue and about a dozen other NFL executives met with Steelers owner Dan Rooney at the team's offices to try to move forward on a new collective bargaining agreement.

Rooney issued a warning in March that time was running short to negotiate an extension to the CBA. Seven months later, Upshaw said there has been no movement.

The CBA virtually expires after the 2006 season, a little more than a year from now. Technically, it runs until '08 but '07 is an uncapped year, so there might as well be no contract in many ways.

What happens in an uncapped year? Teams can pay players anything they want without worrying about a salary cap. But the players should know that once that point is reached, they do not become unrestricted free agents until after their sixth year; currently, it's after four years.

As Upshaw noted Thursday, time is of the essence also so teams can prorate signing bonuses. They can be prorated, for cap purposes, only three years after the last capped year. In other words, this year they could prorate over five. Starting in March, it will be down to four. That not only affects a team's salary cap, it could affect the size of a player's signing bonus.

There's another important factor to the negotiations and that's the ability of the owners to come to an agreement on revenue sharing beyond what they divide now. Until that's done, there will be no CBA, which Upshaw also mentioned. He spoke with the Steelers' players hours after Dan and team president Art Rooney left to attend Friday's funeral of Giants owner Wellington Mara.

Jason DeCrow, Associated Press A BIG MAN -- Giants quarterback Eli Manning, left, and tight end Jeremy Shockey prepare to board a team bus en route to the funeral Friday of longtime Giants owner Wellington Mara. Click photo for larger image.

The death of Mara left Rooney as the longest-tenured NFL owner (not the oldest, as he would readily point out). Rooney started working for the Steelers, founded by his father, in 1955. Upshaw noted that 18-19 new owners have entered the league during his two-decade tenure as head of the players union.

"People have to remember," he said of the new owners, "what Wellington and Dan brought to this league."

Jaguars looking to move?

The talk of the Saints possibly moving out of New Orleans has overshadowed another potential team move -- Jacksonville.

With no NFL team in Los Angeles, others are threatening to move there unless they get better stadium deals from their current cities.

The Jaguars complain the city is violating their lease, preventing the team from collecting certain revenues. For instance, the city won't allow the team to run its electronic ad signs during the Florida-Georgia game and might pass a bill depriving the club its signage rights to the Gator Bowl.

Bill Prescott, a Jaguars' vice president, acknowledge that "it's a fair statement" to say the club will be forced to move if the city keeps taking away its revenue opportunities called for in its lease.

The Jaguars ran a story on their Web site that stated, "This town could lose this team. That's a fact."

Time share

As with Jerome Bettis, Kansas City's Priest Holmes, 32, finds sharing time with a young back to be a blessing. The Chiefs use Holmes for two series and Larry Johnson for one.

"The rotation, I love it," Holmes said. "One of the things I can always tell any running back is to be careful for what you ask for. To be a starter at that position in this league means a whole lot. There are a lot of sacrifices on your body. For anyone to come in and bring up the idea of switching out, I love it. I really do. The wear and tear will change anybody."

Underdog Browns

The Cleveland Browns are two-point underdogs to the winless Houston Texans and not feeling the love.

"I take offense to that," fullback Terrelle Smith said.

"A slap in the face," center Jeff Faine said.

Imagine, a team that finished 4-12 last season taking offense at being an underdog.

"I think those guys think this is their best chance to get a victory," Browns coach Romeo Crennel said of the 0-6 Texans.

Stormy relationship

They're calling it the Hurricane Bowl: The New Orleans Saints, displaced by Hurricane Katrina, play the Miami Dolphins, disrupted by Hurricane Wilma, today in Baton Rouge, La.

The Saints practice in San Antonio and play their first home game in their state this year. The Dolphins, forced to move last week's game up by two days to Friday night, worked out at their headquarters, which was still running under emergency power at midweek.

"I don't think our circumstance or situation here is anything like what they have had to deal with," Dolphins coach Nick Saban said.

Problems with Patriots

The Steelers aren't the only ones who have had problems with three-time Super Bowl champion New England. Take the Indianapolis Colts, for example.

Their past two seasons ended in the playoffs in Foxboro, Mass., where the Colts have not won since 1995. Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning is 0-7 at New England and 2-10 overall vs. the Patriots.

Indianapolis plays at New England Nov. 7, and Colts coach Tony Dungy does not accept that the Patriots are down because of injuries.

"I don't think that's a problem for them," Dungy said. "They've done it in the past and they've done it well, as well as anybody in the league."