Report: NFL owners, players on the verge of a new labor agreement

A short while ago multiple outlets reported that the NFL owners have agreed upon the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which is reportedly a 10 year deal. I’m not sure who first reported it, but this is the first tweet on my TL that I saw, so it’s what I’ll run with:

Adam Schefter reported that not all 32 owners approved of the deal, but I haven’t seen what the vote total was, or what way the Wilf’s voted.

Although we don’t know what the full labor deal encompasses, one of the things that leaked yesterday was about an expanded playoff format, which you can read about right here if you missed it.

Now that the owners have approved, there’s a two step player process for approval. First, the player reps for the NFLPA have to meet and vote on it. Two thirds of the player reps have to approve it, and if that happens, then it will go to the players union as a whole for ratification.

If you’re unfamiliar, there is one player rep per team, 32 total, so 21 player reps will need to vote yes. If that happens and it goes to the union as a whole for an up or down vote, they would only need a simple majority for approval.

Adam Thielen is the player rep for the Vikings, and to my knowledge he has not made any comments regarding the proposed CBA. Also, and I find this pretty cool...did you guys know Adam Thielen is from Minnesota?

No seriously, he is!!

Since we don’t know the whole agreement, other than some pieces here and there, we have no idea what’s in it, and whether or not it will be approved by the players. If it’s approved, it will go into effect for the 2021 season, and if it isn’t, the two sides will have to go back into negotiations to hammer out their differences. Honestly, I’m surprised they have an agreement this early. Most everything I’ve been reading or hearing warned of an acrimonious negotiation and the possibility of a lengthy holdout, and the last labor negotiation resulted in a player lockout by the owners. That led to a very unorthodox and truncated off-season that saw the lockout end right as training camps were set to open.

But it seems like the NFL is close to avoiding a lockout and/or player’s strike, one that would be disastrous for the game.

With the ball in the NFLPA’s court, what’s going to happen?