The NFL owners say the current collective-bargaining agreement, which gives 60 percent of the league's total football revenue to the players, doesn't work for them.

DeMaurice Smith has a short, sweet, two-word response to that: Prove it.

Smith, the new executive director of the NFL Players Association, has urged the owners to open their books and show the union why the deal they approved by a 30-2 vote three years ago no longer is economically viable.

"That just makes sense to me," said Smith this week in Philadelphia after meeting with a group from the Eagles. "The basic function of a financial statement is to give you an accurate snapshot of what the profit-loss and revenue of a team is. That's what we don't have."

The union knows, to the penny, what the league produces in revenue -- just under $8 billion last year -- because it is used to calculate the salary cap. But the owners claim too much of their share of that $8 billion is being eaten away by costs, including stadium debt. Again, Smith says prove it. Show us your bottom line.

"Look, I can't crawl into their heads," he said. "I don't have a crystal ball about what they want to do. What the players know is, they know that even in the worst economic downturn in our lifetime, the NFL has secured television deals that go until 2014. We know that all of those deals are increases over the past deals. We know that attendance continues to climb. We know that 40 million people watched the draft. And we know that the league generated almost $8 billion in revenue last year.

"I think from anyone's standard, the strength of the NFL -- its economic viability, its growth among fans and its growth with all of their [television] partners, has not only been sustained, it's been almost exponential growth over the last 40 years. And it looks like that trend continues."

The current CBA is scheduled to expire after the 2010 season. But if there isn't a new deal by March, the final year of the agreement will be uncapped. The league and the union held their first negotiating session three weeks ago.

While retired quarterback Brett Favre gave the impression that he is the one calling the shots when it comes to whether he plays for Minnesota this year, indications are that the team is going to want an answer from him about his future by the time training camp opens in late July.

Favre ended his months-long silence by admitting in an interview on HBO that he wants to play again, that the Vikings are the only team he is talking to and that if his arm heals from arthroscopic surgery his second retirement will end like his first: without him missing a regular-season game.

The Vikings report to training camp July 29 and will begin practicing two days later. Players took a "you know as much as we do" approach to Favre questions when asked about him during offseason workouts.

Matt Ryan's teammates say their quarterback will be even better in 2009 than he was when he won widespread acclaim as the NFL's offensive rookie of the year last season.

"By leaps and bounds," Atlanta fullback Ovie Mughelli said of Ryan this week as the Falcons approached the end of their organized team activities. "It's actually scary how much he's improved and it's only his second year."

Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman returned to UCLA last week and graduated with a degree in sociology 21 years after starring for the Bruins. Wrote Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: "What, you thought he'd have trouble passing?"