NFL Players Planning Monday Vote On Labor Deal
Added on Jul 23, 2011 by Jack Thurman in
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The NFL labor situation still isn’t officially resolved, but all signs remain favorable for an agreement to be formalized early next week and preseason preparation and roster moves to begin several days later. The current word is that the NFL Players Association will vote to accept the new collective bargaining agreement on Monday.
More specifically, it should work like this. The 11 member NFL Players Association Executive Board will vote to recommend that players accept the deal on Monday. What needs to happen then is that the rank and file will first need to vote to recertify the union. Then the 32 team player representatives will need to recommend the recertification and new collective bargaining agreement. Among the rank and file, a simple majority (50% + 1) of NFL players will need to vote to recertify the union and accept the CBA.
The NFL Owners have agreed to open facilities to players after the NFLPA votes to recommend the deal. This means that players can begin reporting as soon as Wednesday, with most players expected to report by Friday. The current plan is to hold the full membership voting at training camp locations. Assuming the current timetable holds, training camps should be able to get underway by a week from Monday at the latest.
The free agency period could start on July 30 and teams could start getting their draft picks under contract. It’s still not clear when undrafted free agents would be able to sign, one of several logistical issues concerning personnel that will have to be dealt with. Another significant roadblock to a comprehensive settlement was removed when San Diego’s Vincent Jackson reportedly gave up on his effort to extort $10 million from the NFL via the settlement. Jackson was one of the parties to the class action suit against the league. This suit had to be settled for the new agreement to be finalized and Jackson and several other players attempted to get a big payday in the process.
The current plan is that what will be more or less a full preseason schedule will be able to be held. The August 7 Hall of Fame Game between Chicago and St. Louis has been cancelled, but the hope is that the rest of the preseason schedule can be salvaged.
