NFL Owners Approve A New Deal. Will The Players Follow?
Friday, July 22, 2011
It hasn’t progressed at quite the rapid pace most of us expected, but the NFL labor dispute is very close to being over with for at least the next 10 years.
Thursday in Atlanta, NFL owners approved a new collective bargaining deal with the players which includes a plan for revenue sharing for the next decade. League commissioner Roger Goodell made the announcement Thursday afternoon that the owners received the needed two-thirds vote to approve the deal. In fact, the league’s owners voted in favor of the new deal by a vote of 31-0 with the Oakland Raiders being the only team to abstain from voting.
Jonathan Kraft was there representing the New England Patriots while his father stayed back in Massachusetts to mourn the loss of his wife Myra.
Shortly after the owners approved the deal, there were lots of rumblings that the players were unhappy and possibly reluctant to approve the deal. That the owners were unanimous in approving it may make the players feel like this is much more of an owner-friendly as opposed to a player-friendly deal.
If that’s the case, the players are being a bit disingenuous here. After all, their leader – NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith essentially agreed to the parameters of this deal which included specific percentages agreed to for revenue sharing. Why the union is all of a sudden balking at the deal is a bit of a mystery.
Still, many of the players are leery of the owners quick approval of the deal and feel backed into a corner so-to-speak. They are concerned that by the owners ratifying the new deal so quickly that the players will now suffer the wrath of the fans if they do not follow suit and approve the deal and recertify as a union by next week.
In any event, the players are expected to approve the deal eventually whether that is tonight or possibly sometime on Friday. When they do, they will have to recertify as a union.
Once that happens, the league will open up training facilities to all players on Saturday with the league’s offseason (or free agency period) set to begin next Wednesday.
Goodell did announce that the league’s first preseason game – The Hall of Fame Game between St. Louis and Chicago scheduled for August 7th has already been cancelled. As of the moment, however, the plan is for the rest of the league’s week 1 preseason games to be played.
In a related note, the agent for Logan Mankins said Thursday denied that his client made any demands for money or unrestricted free agency. Frank Bauer told ESPN, “I think it’s really unfair what has happened to Logan Mankins in media characterizations that he is making monetary demands or holding up a settlement. Logan Mankins is a young man who was encouraged and solicited into a lawsuit to help the union spearhead a new agreement. Logan’s main concern for entering into as a plaintiff was to see if he can become free and help other players have less restrictions.”
If you read that quote closely, it would appear that Mankins did not make any monetary demands but apparently would like to become an unrestricted free agent as opposed to the Patriots’ franchise player which he has currently been designated.
The other player in the same situation as Mankins is San Diego WR Vincent Jackson who has also been accused of possibly holding up the deal like Mankins was for either money, unrestricted free agency or both. Jackson also denied that assertion saying, “I made no demands. I wanna play ball like the rest of my peers.”
The NFL lockout officially started on March 11th.
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