BOSTON — Free agency rules will change if the NFL has no salary cap for the 2010 season, and team owners opted not to add to potential uncertainty by bringing an anti-tampering measure to the table.

The owners offered a proposal to create an offseason window when teams can negotiate with free agents even before the players actually become available. The idea is not dead and will be discussed at next March's winter meetings — weeks after free agency is scheduled to begin.

And with no new collective bargaining agreement with the players union in place, next season will be an uncapped year — albeit with further restrictions on player movement.

"We've been discussing this for two to three years and haven't vetted it enough to make sure we've got the right system," said Rich McKay, co-chairman of the competition committee and president of the Atlanta Falcons. "We'll continue to look at it and bring it up again."

McKay said the owners prefer stricter enforcement of current tampering rules.

"The anti-tampering rules have served us well," he said. "We hold onto the idea of let's enforce these rules."

Currently, a free agent can negotiate with his current team until free agency begins. But, as McKay cryptically noted, there have been violations.

"People have always hung on to the idea of 'We have rules, let's enforce them.' But they're very hard to enforce," he said. "I don't necessarily put all the blame on the clubs. There's another group at work here, a group that is not necessarily under our control."

That group would be player agents, many of whom consider stretching the rules part of the free agent game.

Goodell said another negotiating session with the NFL Players Association is scheduled for next week. The sides have met several times, but no major economic negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement have occurred.