Woke up this morning to a little bit of good news. There is a little optimism in the NFL Labor front. In a story by ESPN, a deal could be in the works, agreed upon, and signed on July 21 during league meetings in Atlanta. "There's no reason to believe it won't get done," elaborated one NFL owner. There's a lot of good news coming from the talks about right now, and the sides are working together quickly to come to an agreement. The one major issue that has been agreed upon is how to split the nine billion dollars evenly. Players will get about 48 percent of that revenue. The other major issue that hasn't been agreed upon, that is going to be the fore front of talks leading into this week is the rookie scale. It has been agreed upon that there will be a rookie scale. The money issue just has to be decided on what the rookies will get paid. As I said before in another issue, rookies should not get paid more than veterans that has been in the league awhile and have earned their merit. It doesn't matter what these rookies did in college. Not saying they are not good players. It's just that the NFL is a totally new game than the college ranks. Let these rookies earn the minimum, or maximum, whatever it may be, in their rookie contract. Then once they work towards their second contract, then they can earn the big bucks. Even the rookies contracts would be big money for most people.
If a ratification is finalized by July 21, a set of transition rules will take place in order to get the 2011 season up and running in a timely manner with no delay in the schedule. The only hiccup might be the August 7 Hall of Fame Game with the Bears and Rams. The transition rules are:
July 21: Educate the clubs on the news league rules and allow voluntary training for teams and agents. July 25: Sign undrafted rookies, as well as give free agents a chance to re-sign with their teams.
July 28: League year starts and free agency begins.
Aug 2: Rosters must be set at 90 players.
Aug 3: Deadline for restricted free agents to sign offer sheets.
Aug 7: A four-day match period for teams to match restricted free-agent offer sheets.
Aug 12: Deadline for rookies to sign contracts (not yet agreed upon).
Aug.16: Signing period for restricted free agents ends, as does the signing period for franchise and transition tenders.
Aug. 29: Deadline for players to report to earned credit for an accrued season toward free agency.
On the field preparation for the players will begin with all training camps starting no later that August 1. Since this is a year round sport, all players should already be in shape, so training camps, like most years, will be a refresher to get back into game shape. A lot of this time will be for the coaching staff and players to get aquainted with any new rules that would have been set for with the new CBA. So hopefully my next story will be a real positive one, with the title being, A DONE DEAL!!!
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