OT following the NFL/NFLPA work stoppage; UPD agreement reached

[AlanHUK]

CFL is already mid season isn't it? Could teams really just sign up a bunch of NFL players mid season?

Also Canada is in North America :p

 

[NeelyWasAWarrior]

YAAAAY The NFL lockout is coming to an end.

The NFL is too smart to carry this lockout into the season. NHL can learn a thing or two about the best run league in the world.

 

[kdb209]

The end of the lockout is "Imminent" - boy they're screwed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/s...approaches-end-but-timetable-still-vague.html

End of N.F.L. Lockout Imminent, if Elusive
By JUDY BATTISTA
Published: July 24, 2011


With the executive committee of the N.F.L. Players Association preparing to gather in Washington, a late request by players to have an opt-out clause inserted into the new collective bargaining agreement was the last loose end to be settled before a vote could be taken that would lead to the end of the lockout.

The request by players to have the seven-year clause inserted into the proposed 10-year deal was made late in the negotiating process, which upset owners, said a person briefed on negotiations. Players association officials said the request was not a deal-breaker, but with lawyers writing up the last few changes to the deal on Sunday, a delay in a vote could move back the anticipated start of football by another day.

Executive committee members hope to take a vote on Monday to recommend ratification of the proposed settlement. Then the 32 team player representatives will vote by conference call — also hoped for on Monday, although the votes could slip to Tuesday — and they are also expected to approve the new agreement. With the 10 named plaintiffs in the players’ antitrust suit having already cleared the way for a settlement, those two votes are expected to set in motion the beginning of the season.

While the timeline remained fluid on Sunday afternoon, the doors to team facilities could open to players by midweek, allowing them to fill out paper union cards to re-form the union. Counting those ballots could take several days, but once there are enough to assure re-forming the union — half of the 1,900 players, plus one — the full union membership could vote to ratify the agreement. Only then would training camps open and player transactions be allowed, which will happen almost certainly no earlier than this weekend and perhaps not until the start of next week.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

YAAAAY The NFL lockout is coming to an end.

The NFL is too smart to carry this lockout into the season. NHL can learn a thing or two about the best run league in the world.

Completely different scenarios.

1) OWNERS:Teams are all making money, just wanted to make more money. Hard cap already in place and not going anywhere.
PLAYERS: Want a fair deal and not be screwed by owners


2) OWNERS: Teams were losing money, wanted cost certainty. No cap or revenue sharing or anything was in place
PLAYERS: Refused to ever accept a cap

You see the difference and why 1 can get done without losing games and why the other was never going to go forward until the cap was in place?

 

[Crazy_Ike]

Indeed. It's always a mistake to oversimplify things. What the NHL was facing earlier in the decade doesn't even remotely compare to what the NFL is facing today. Even the NBA situation isn't as bad as the NHL's was.

If we WERE to oversimplify things from observing major league CBAs, it would be: too powerful owners might be bad for the players but too powerful players is bad for everyone.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

The end of the lockout is "Imminent" - boy they're screwed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/25/s...approaches-end-but-timetable-still-vague.html

lockout lifted as of 1pm

 

[kdb209]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/07/25/sports/football/AP-FBN-NFL-Labor.html

Players Approve Deal to End N.F.L. Lockout
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 25, 2011 at 4:08 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — Now it can be said with certainty: Get ready for some football!

NFL players voted to OK a final deal Monday, days after the owners approved a tentative agreement, and the sides finally managed to put an end to the 4½-month lockout, the longest work stoppage in league history.

"This is a long time coming, and football's back," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said, "and that's the great news for everybody."

...

Owners overwhelmingly approved a proposal Thursday, but some unresolved issues still needed to be reviewed to satisfy players; the owners do not need to vote again.

...

Brees was one of 10 plaintiffs in the antitrust lawsuit that players filed against the league. Those plaintiffs approved the deal, two people familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

...

Kraft apologized to fans for having to wait out the labor turmoil.

"The end result is we've been able to have an agreement that I think is going to allow this sport to flourish over the next decade," Kraft said.

A tentative timeline would allow NFL clubs to start signing 2011 draft picks and rookie free agents on Tuesday. Conversations with veteran free agents also could start Tuesday, and their signings could begin Friday.

Under the proposed schedule, training camps would open for 10 of the 32 teams on Wednesday, 10 more on Thursday, another 10 on Friday, and the last two teams on Sunday.

Both sides set up informational conference calls for Monday afternoon to go over the details of the agreement. The NFLPA told player agents they would be coached in particular on the guidelines and schedule for signing free agents and rookies; the NFL alerted general managers and coaches they would be briefed in separate calls.

The major economic framework for the deal was worked out more than a week ago.

That included how the more than $9 billion in annual league revenues will be divided (about 53 percent to owners and 47 percent to players over the next decade; the old CBA resulted in nearly a 50-50 split); a per-club cap of about $120 million for salary and bonuses in 2011 — and at least that in 2012 and 2013 — plus about $22 million for benefits; a salary system to rein in spending on first-round draft picks; and unrestricted free agency for most players after four seasons.

 

[kdb209]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/sports/football/NFL-Union-Labor-Deal.html

After nearly five months of inactivity by all but a handful of negotiators, the N.F.L. suddenly sprang to life again Monday, when 32 player representatives voted unanimously to recommend approval of a10-year labor deal that owners largely approved last Thursday. With an apology to the game’s fans from New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and the applause of a few spectators who had gathered on a sidewalk to witness the announcement, the process to end the lockout was put in motion, the longest work stoppage in the game’s history with only the loss of the Hall of Fame game.

After the final details were worked out Monday morning, the lawyers who were the preeminent figures of the unusual off-season finally gave way to coaches and players desperate to get on the field and to an anticipated frenzy of player signings and trades the likes of which the N.F.L., normally a model of meticulously planned stasis, has never experienced.

Rookies can start signing contracts and every other free agent can begin negotiating them on Tuesday, when trades can also begin; teams will start opening training camps on Wednesday; and on Friday, approximately 400 free agents can begin joining new teams — five months of activity being funneled into just a few weeks.

“Chaos, the best word for it is chaos,†said Tony Richardson, the veteran fullback who is a member of the players association’s executive committee.

Said agent Joel Segal, whose clients include Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick: “It is going to be fast, furious and at a pace like we’ve never seen before. This will be unprecedented in speed.â€

The N.F.L. hopes it doesn’t experience it again for a long time. The 10-year agreement does not include an opt-out clause, a provision players wanted but owners resisted, arguing that financial certainty would be critical when the league starts renegotiating television contracts in the next few years. That issue was finally settled on Monday morning.

For now, the league and players will immediately begin to negotiate final elements of a collective bargaining agreement, including drug testing and personal conduct policies, and the union will be re-formed so that all 1,900 players can vote to ratify the new collective bargaining agreement by Aug. 4. If those items are not completed by Aug. 4, the settlement would be void. That, said players association executive director DeMaurice Smith, is not going to happen.

...

General managers and salary cap specialists spent a day last week getting briefed on new rules, including a rookie wage system that will severely curtail the outsize contracts that had been given to top draft picks. Teams can have 90 players, 10 more than in previous years, on the roster for training camp. Some teams may not bring in that many — there will be limited time to work with inexperienced players because coaches will be more focused on getting players ready for regular season games, a casualty of the loss of off-season practices.

The changes figure to be especially daunting for the eight teams that have new head coaches and for other teams that have new offensive or defensive coordinators, some of whom have not yet had a chance to even meet with their players. Lost to the lockout were the off-season practices and classroom sessions that typically familiarize players with new playbooks and coaches with new personalities, setting teams in transition even further back.

One free agency begins, teams and players will be under pressure to make fast decisions – it’s unlikely that even coveted free agents will take multiple trips to visit suitors, as they usually do – exacerbating the glaring differences in how teams manage free agency. Teams like the Patriots, Colts and Steelers who have stable front offices and know exactly what kind of player they want, will handle this unusual stretch as well as they do a regular off-season. And teams that typically struggle in free agency, like the Bengals and Jaguars, will almost certainly struggle under the difficult conditions.

“The first group of players will get their money – that always goes fast anyway, and this year it might go a little faster,†said Charley Casserly, the former general manager of the Washington Redskins and Houston Texans. “That second level, that normally can take three or four months is now a matter of days if not hours. That second level is going to make quick decisions.â€

And because teams will now sign rookie draft picks at the same time as free agents, older veteran players – who in a normal year might have found a plentiful market for their services – could get squeezed because teams have already filled their needs with draft picks.

 

[Melrose Munch]

This thread should be closed.

 

[berklon]

Good news. Looking forward to watching the NFL in the fall.

 

[kdb209]

This thread should be closed.

We still have to wait for the official end - the NFLPA votes to re-certify and accept the proposed CBA - which should come by Aug 4.

 

[LadyStanley]

http://sportsjournalism.org/sports-...ds-hbo-to-cancel-2011-edition-of-hard-knocks/

HBO cancels 2011 Hard Knocks edition.

 

[LadyStanley]

http://www.tsn.ca/nfl/story/?id=372523

Commissioner Roger Goodell sent an email Tuesday to employees of the league, NFL Films, NFL Network and NFL.com telling them they will receive all lost wages from the work stoppage. All salaries will be restored to previous levels.
...
Seven teams also cut salaries or enforced furloughs during the work stoppage. All of them say they will make good on the lost wages.

Nice. (I don't think the NHL and teams did that)

 

[LadyStanley]

darrenrovell 6:39am via UberSocial for BlackBerry 1 casualty of lockout? No players on tickets. Texans, 49ers, Browns, Saints & Raiders sent out tickets. No players used.

 

[LadyStanley]

http://www.tsn.ca/nfl/story/?id=372823

NY AG closes NFL antitrust case

 

[LadyStanley]

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2011/08/03/1992562/nfl-players-working-to-finish.html

NFL players and owners still are debating drug testing, benefits and the player conduct policy disciplinary process as they work to complete the collective bargaining agreement.
The NFL and the players union are discussing those issues Wednesday, with the league year scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. EDT on Thursday. That's when players who signed new contracts will be allowed to practice for the first time if the players approve the CBA.

 

[Fehr Time*]

The drug testing thing is B.S. imo. Truth is, the teams don't care about what the player is on as long as they perform. It's pretty obvious how the league thinks of the well being of players long term when you see how they treat the retired ones...

 

[kdb209]

This thread should be closed.

We still have to wait for the official end - the NFLPA votes to re-certify and accept the proposed CBA - which should come by Aug 4.

And Aug 4 it is ...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=Ath26q2n6NotKJJPji9zMp1DubYF?slug=ap-nfl-cba

WASHINGTON (AP)—NFL players ratified a new, 10-year collective bargaining agreement Thursday, hours after it was finalized, and two people familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press the contract allows the NFL to become the first major U.S. professional sports league to use blood testing for human growth hormone.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because no formal announcement had been made about the details of the CBA.

Players eventually would be subject to random testing for HGH, in addition to annual checks—as is the case for all banned substances in the league’s drug-testing program—only after the union is confident in the way the testing and appeals process will work.

The aim is to have everything worked out in time to start HGH testing by Week 1 of the regular season, but that is not guaranteed.

...

Most of the deal to end the NFL’s 4 1/2 -month lockout was agreed to last month, but certain elements still needed to be ironed out after the NFL Players Association re-established itself as a union. The union—which dissolved itself in March, when the old CBA expired, allowing players to sue the league in federal court—was again formed by last weekend. Final CBA language was in place Thursday afternoon in talks between the sides’ lawyers in Washington.

Before 5 p.m. EDT, players voted to approve the final agreement. That allowed players who signed contracts July 26 or after—and had been forced to sit out practices by NFL rules—to finally join teammates in drills Thursday, as the new “league year†officially began.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith will sign the CBA at the front steps of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, on Friday morning. That’s where the only game canceled by the NFL’s first work stoppage since 1987 was supposed to be played Sunday between the Bears and Rams.

...

Among the CBA elements that were settled this week: parameters for penalties associated with on-field discipline and new disability program guidelines. Under a new neuro-cognitive disability benefit, for example, players do not have to prove that their mental disability was related to playing football.

For on-field offenses—which grabbed headlines last season when the league made a point of enforcing existing rules about illegal hits more strictly—the NFLPA must be consulted before a player is suspended or fined more than $50,000. And players now will be able to argue on appeal that a fine is excessive if it exceeds 25 percent of one week’s pay for a first offense or 50 percent of a week’s pay for a second offense.

/Thread

 

[Melrose Munch]

And Aug 4 it is ...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=Ath26q2n6NotKJJPji9zMp1DubYF?slug=ap-nfl-cba


/Thread

TY.

 

[LadyStanley]

FTR I do not accept that the NFL is the "first" pro league to test for HGH.

UCI has been doing it for years.

 

[LadyStanley]

http://www.tsn.ca/nfl/story/?id=373572

U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson convened a status conference to decide whether it would be worthwhile to order the three sides to sit down again next week with U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan, who brokered the agreement that ended the lockout but did not settle the retirees' still-pending lawsuit.

The retirees claim they were illegally left out as the contract negotiations progressed, and Wednesday's discussions escalated into a partial airing of the complex arguments about league and union legal responsibilities to the retirees that the judge needs to untangle as she decides how to proceed.

Lawyers for the league and NFL Players Association argued against letting the lawsuit move forward or going to mediation. Representing the NFL, David Boies said retirees received a substantial increase in benefits under the new contract. NFLPA lawyer Jeffrey Kessler pointed out that the court has not yet added the union as a defendant to the retirees' original lawsuit, so there's nothing for the union to mediate at the moment.

Nelson said she sympathizes with the retirees but likened their case to "pushing a rock up a hill."

 

[LadyStanley]

http://www.tsn.ca/nfl/story/?id=374432

Retired players dismiss antitrust lawsuit against NFL

However, there are still class action suits in the works

Shawn Stuckey, a lawyer for the retired players, said his clients voluntarily dismissed the case because it concentrated more on the lockout. The end of the lockout rendered that particular case moot, but he said they are still considering other avenues to get their voices heard.

Retired players are pursuing other claims against the league, too.

Earlier this month, seven former players sued the NFL in Philadelphia over concussion-related injuries, the first potential class-action lawsuit of its kind. And a lawsuit filed this summer Los Angeles Superior Court contends the NFL concealed information about the danger of concussions for decades.

 

[LadyStanley]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/44179824

Darrel Rovell's take, now that the dust has cleared: players got the raw end of it.

Players had been getting 57.5 percent of the revenue in previous deals, but once the stadium credits to the owners were deducted, it was closer to 50-50. Since the salary cap was implemented in 1994, it had never been lower than that. That's the deal that DeMaurice Smith, the union's executive director, said all along he needed to have. What did they get in the end? After the stadium credits, the cap would work out to an average of 47 percent of all revenues over the course of the new 10-year deal. Sure, the players will wind up getting more towards the end of the deal thanks to a predicted rise in national media rights, which they have 55 percent of, but they don't start where they said they wanted to.
...
It is true that the last collective bargaining agreement was a win for the players. The owners should never have signed that deal. It's easy to argue that the players shouldn't have signed it this time around. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like they had a choice because there was such chaos at the end. Several players told CNBC that the first time they were seeing the intricacies of the deal was when it was presented before them to sign what the owners had already signed off on. Even team union representatives were looking at the deal as if it were foreign.
The union had spent so much time on getting their gains through a legal strategy that backfired, once an appeals court ruled that the lockout was legally permissible, that they were unprepared for the true negotiation.

 

[Fehr Time*]

http://www.cnbc.com/id/44179824

Darrel Rovell's take, now that the dust has cleared: players got the raw end of it.

Illustrates what happens when you have weak union leadership. This would not happen in MLB, or hockey as of now.