Owners approve proposed CBA, wait for NFLPA to OK deal

Updated 12:20 p.m. ET Friday, July 22

ATLANTA — NFL owners voted Thursday evening to approve a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, leaving approval of the CBA from players, the dropping of litigation against owners and the recertification of the NFLPA as the final major steps in ending a work stoppage that has spanned more than four months.

However, those final pieces to the puzzle did not come together Thursday night, with the NFLPA not voting on the proposed agreement on a conference call, according to PFW's Eric Edholm. Multiple media outlets reported Thursday that NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith, in an email to players, said that there were still issues to be collectively bargained and otherwise agreed to before reaching a new CBA.

The NFLPA issued a statement Friday morning saying that there would be no further statements from it on Friday out of respect for Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who lost his wife Myra to cancer earlier this week, and the Kraft family.

Owners ratified the proposed CBA, which is projected to run through the 2020 season and has no opt-out clauses, by a 31-0 vote, with the Raiders abstaining.

Owners also approved a supplemental revenue sharing system, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said. Specifics on the revenue-sharing plan are not yet known. (Smith, in his note to players, said that the NFLPA wasn't involved in the supplemental revenue-sharing talks.)

Owners hold that the prospective CBA is a fair deal that will ensure labor peace for the rest of this decade.  

"I think we've crafted a long-term agreement that can be good for the game of football, be good for the players, be good for the clubs, and most importantly, good for our game and good for our fans," Goodell said. "We really are anxious to get back to football, and hopefully today's development, and the developments of the NFLPA over the next few days, will ensure that."

According to the league, teams could re-open team facilities to players as early as Saturday, with the new league year beginning as soon as Wednesday, if players ratify the deal Friday. The timeline would be moved back with each passing day until the players agree to a deal. The league's stance is that the NFLPA must recertify as a union — it is now a trade group, giving them the right to file antitrust litigation — then approve a new CBA.

NFL lead negotiator Jeff Pash said there wasn't a de facto deadline for the NFLPA to recertify, but he indicated time was of the essence from the league's perspective.

"We have not drawn a line in the sand here," he said. "We are hoping that it will proceed expeditiously.  We think that the incentives are very strong for everybody for that process to proceed expeditiously."

The NFL has cancelled the Hall of Fame game between the Rams and Bears on Aug. 7, with Goodell saying Thursday that the league had run "too short" on time to stage the traditional first preseason game of the summer.

Upon ratification of the CBA by both sides, the tentative NFL calendar would account for a four-day "pre-2011 league year period." On the first day of NFL business resuming, teams could do the following:

• Re-negotiate contracts with players.
• Negotiate with, but not sign, free agents ("street" free agents and those on other clubs) and undrafted free agents.
• Sign their own rookies and free agents.
• Release players.

According to the tentative agreement approved by the owners, the salary cap will be $120.375 million for player salaries and bonuses in 2011 ($142.4 million with benefits included). Owners must spend at least 99 percent of the salary cap in 2011 and '12. (The projected salary floor for 2011 is about $119.171 million.)

For the rest of the agreement, the league must collectively spend 95 percent of the cap, with individual teams having to spend a minimum of 89 percent. Individual teams can spend as much as $3 million over the cap in 2011 and $1.5 million in '12, but those amounts would have to be paid back in a corresponding loss of cap room in a future year.

Players will need four accrued seasons to reach unrestricted free agency in the proposed new agreement, meaning players like Vikings WR Sidney Rice will now be able to test the market. Players with expired contracts and three accrued seasons will be resticted free agents.

Other elements of the proposed deal include $900 million to $1 billion in funding for new benefits for retired players, with $620 million going to start a "Legacy Fund" to increase pensions for players who retired before 1993.

The big question, of course, is whether the agreement, as laid out by the NFL, will remain in place, or if changes are still to come with players not yet ratifying the deal.

Asked if the NFLPA needed to recertify by July 27, Pash chose his words carefully, stressing he believed the NFL had signed off on an agreement that worked for both sides.

"We believe and expect that we will have a fully approved and ratified agreement on a timely basis," Pash said. "We believe that that works for both sides. We believe that the agreement that has been negotiated — which is long, complicated and detailed — was negotiated in good faith with the intention of ratifying it. I cannot imagine that DeMaurice Smith is electing to pay all of those hours for his attorneys to negotiate an agreement that he and his membership then decide not to ratify.

"So we expect that we will have a ratified agreement and that we will be open with the new league year around the schedule that we have outlined for you. If that does not happen, then obviously we will have to consider what to do next. But for now, we think the reality is we have an agreement. It is a good agreement. We expect it to be ratified. We believe it can be ratified on a timely basis. If something else happens, we will have to adjust our thinking."

After the NFL vote, Giants owner John Mara expressed optimism the work stoppage wouldn't take much of a toll on the league. 

"It's hard for say at this point," Mara said. "I think if this thing gets ratified and we get right back to football and we don't miss any more preseason games, my hope is the damage is minimal. I'm sure a lot of fans are more than a little bit fed up about this, but I think those things tend to go away if you get back to football and get into the season.

"... The first week of free agency is going to be very, very hectic, and I think that will get a lot of attention, and we'll start playing games, and I think people will get focused on that."

Right now, the focus remains on off-field matters in an offseason unlike any other in NFL history. 

Source: http://www.profootballweekly.com/2011/07/22/owners-approve-proposed-cba-wait-for-nflpa-to-ok-d

joe riggs jon fitch ken shamrock learn to fight matt hughes matt hughes fight