Owners Approve CBA

In a 31-0 vote (with only the Oakland Raiders abstaining), NFL owners voted to approve a new collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Players Association.  This deal provides for labor peace until 2021.  However, the lockout has not been lifted yet.  This is contingent on the NFLPA reconstituting as an official union (as of now they are still just a trade association) and approving the CBA according to the terms of the deal the owners voted on today. 

This of course is not a done deal.  DeMaurice Smith has consistenly reiterated that the NFLPA has not agreed to any sort of "deal," despite what the owners may have said.  The biggest issue still outstanding is the pending Brady et al vs. NFL antitrust suit.  This is a very touchy situation, because there are 10 plaintiffs named in that case and they all want very specific things (or so they say).  One of the biggest issues in that case deals with the so-called "franchise tag."  For those of you who are not well-learned in NFL contract jargon like I am, there are two kinds of "tags" teams can apply to players who are pending free agents.  The franchise tag allows a team to retain the rights to a player whos contract has expired and who otherwise would become an unrestricted free agent.  If a team applies the franchise tag, they retain exclusive negotiating rights with the player, or they can trade him.  If the two sides cannot agree to a contract, the player in question signs a 1-year tender which would give him a salary equal to the average of the top 5 salaries of all players at that particular position.  Each team only has 1 franchise tag they can use.  The other type of tag is a "transition tag."  This is similar to the franchise tag except that the salary would be the average of the top 10 salaries at that postion, and the team does not get exclusive negotiating rights.  They only have right of first refusal and would get draft pick compensation should another team sign that player away.  Each team only gets one transition tag to go along with the franchise tag.  The Brady et al case attempted to give the plaintiffs a lifetime exemption from the franchise tag (similar to to the plaintiffs in Reggie White's lawsuit against the league in 1993).  That will not happen, but the owners' attempt to negotiate 3 additional transition tags for players did not happen either.

The lockout has claimed its next victim.  The NFL has announced that despite the progress in negotiations, the Hall of Fame game has been cancelled.  However, if the players approve the CBA by Tuesday (the date the owners gave them if they want to start the season on time), training camp will open for all teams on August 1st and the preseason will otherwise be played as scheduled. 

If I were DeMaurice Smith, I'd be telling the "union" to sign onto this deal and get on with the season.  The public (whoever is left anyway) is sick of all of the posturing and legal wrangling that has gone on since March.  At the end of the day, these guys are multimillionaires.  The owners have agreed to a CBA that they negotiated.  I understand that they want a deal that's fair to them and the owners opted out of the previous agreement that the players thought was agreeable to them (this deal if approved would have no opt-out provisions).  Here's what they have to ask themselves?  Are they really worse off now than they were under the old deal.  If the answer is no, then they should just make themselves a union again and agree to the deal so we can get on with our lives. 

Then again, you have guys like Josh who are praying really hard that the deal falls to pieces and the NFL as we know it ceases to exist.  He's an Eagles fan.  If I were an Eagles fan, I'd wish the league would cease to exist too.