Call it procedural, call it tactical, call the Eagles' designations of Michael Vick and David Akers as franchise and transition players, respectively, anything you want.

Anything but a fait accompli, that is.

"I just don’t think the tag is valid," said Jerrold Colton, agent for Akers. "We are in an unknown territory right now but I just don’t think it’s valid and I do believe the players association will challenge the usage of this tag. And then we’ll see where all this falls down the road."

Using tags restricting the movement of players when there's no guarantee the NFL and the players will be doing business after March 3 really doesn't make a lot of sense. The NFLPA says it will fight the measure.

And it doesn't make sense drafting players in late April if that happens to be a full month after the Collective Bargaining Agreement has expired. Anticipate legal challenges there, as well.

The worst thing about this mess is both sides are bitter. The NFL owners cancelled a meeting scheduled Tuesday in Philadelphia. The NFLPA is busy negotiating in the courts.