CBA Status - Eyeing a Deal by July 21

[fyo]

So, with the presumptive deadline for keeping everything on track about a week away and judge Boylan apparently going on vacation (really?), what are the issues?

The players are going to get between 48% and 50% of "all revenue". There are still some discussions about what is included in "all revenue" (e.g. players want sales tax to be included).

The salary cap is going to be between $117M and $125M (it was $127M in 2009). The "guaranteed spend" (payout floor) is going to be between 95% and "nearly 100%". Lower end of cap would mean higher end of "guaranteed spend" and vice versa.

Rookie contracts are a huge sticking point still. Owners are looking for 5 year deals for the top picks with guarantees in the neighborhood of $20M for #1 overall (down from $50M last year). The players want shorter rookie contracts and higher guarantees.

Free agency rules are also a point of contention. Owners are pushing for rules that would allow a team "right of first refusal" for some number of its own (free agent) players. Whether this would be in addition to the old "tag" system or in place of it is unclear. What is clear is that 4 years will result in free agency, just like under the old CBA (and unlike the 6 years required last year).

Another significant hurdle is the handling of disputes. The owners want a system of binding arbitration, whereas the players want a judge to handle appeals. The old CBA called for judge Doty to handle those and the owners have taken a particular dislike to him, so that's clearly out of the question. The current arbitrator, judge Boylan, is the obvious candidate right now.

The final major issue appears to be retirement benefits, but very few details have leaked on the details.

[fyo]

So the judge (Boylan) really did go on vacation, setting the next mediation for the 19th. He did ask the two sides to continue talking in the meanwhile, but considering the number of times Boylan has brought the sides together (both physically and on issues), it's not good.

Hopefully, a deal is close enough now that mediation is no longer needed...

[fyo]

So, there is hope. Both sides are eyeing a deal by July 21, where the owners have a meeting scheduled where they could ratify the CBA. (I wonder what the players have to do? There is no Union, so there can be no collective bargaining in an official capacity -- I assume they would have to reinstate the union somehow first.)

According to ESPN, a document has been formulated ("The Transition Rules") which details how the transition would take place if a deal were ratified July 21:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6756301

The document states, among other things, that the beginning of free agency would be July 28.

As noted above, rookie contracts are a huge sticking point still. Players have reportedly agreed to cut guaranteed money in half, but insist on limiting the contract length to 4 years for all 1st round players (as opposed to 5-6 years currently). The solution that everyone has been circling around has been to have a 5th "option" year for some subset of 1st round picks (all, top-16, top-8, top-3, top quarterbacks).

However, the players won't accept anything less than "veteran" compensation for that 5th year. The latest player proposal apparently suggested a franchise-tag like salary equal to the average pay of the top 5 or 10 at that position, whereas the owners are pushing for a fixed amount (the ESPN article mentions $4 million, but that's never going to fly).

There are some indications the players are beginning to get pissed and several media outlets have reported that there is a contingent that want to win over the owners in court. There's also the issue of the $4 billion TV deal where the owners lost in court and judge Doty has yet to rule on damages.

[Sunstroke]

Reading this thread just makes me think of Lloyd in the movie Dumb and Dumber...

"So, you're telling me there's a chance..."

[Pats2006]

I hope so!!!!!!!!!!!!

Season could be saved if so..

[Tenshot13]

Reading this thread just makes me think of Lloyd in the movie Dumb and Dumber...

"So, you're telling me there's a chance..."

If there was a "Like" button on this forum, I'd click it.  I've had that quote in my head for a while on this whole mess.

[fyo]

Looks like the two sides have had some productive days!

The details of a final agreement are firming up:

Salary cap will almost certainly be $120M, with a possible $3M "transition credit" for 1 player to help teams that are way over the cap (e.g. Dallas) still being negotiated.

First round rookie deals will be 4 years plus a 1 year option which would give a guaranteed salary of the average of the top-10 players at that position for top-10 picks, while other first round picks would get the average of players 3-25 at that position.

Some still outstanding issues include details of benefits and injury compensation, right of first refusal on FAs, arbitration with or without judicial appeal, and of course settlement of the two lawsuits (the TV money and the Brady vs NFL trial). Settlement is required before the NFLPA can reestablish itself as a union and thus actually sign anything with the league.

The biggest sticking point is probably the right of first refusal for free agents. Under the old CBA, players were free agents after 4 years (if not under contract), whereas the last two years have required 6 years of service. The new CBA would cut that back to 4, but doing so results in a huge backlog of free agents (roughly 3x the normal number).

The owners want to essentially get the right to match contract offers for up to three players this year to compensate for that backlog. It's different that the various tags in that the players need not be singled out (tagged) beforehand, so any three free agents on a team could be affected. There would also not be any form of team-compensation (draft picks) like there are with tags.

[masterfins]

Well I think we can officially start crossing pre-season games off the schedule, not likely the HOF game will be played now, since those teams were supposed to open camp next week.

[fyo]

Well I think we can officially start crossing pre-season games off the schedule, not likely the HOF game will be played now, since those teams were supposed to open camp next week.

Yeah, the Hall of Fame game is very much up in the air and I think you're right; it's going to be cancelled.

That said, I think we'll get the rest of the preseason games in full, as scheduled. A "handshake deal" will be done this weekend and judge Boylan has ordered the parties to have someone present on Tuesday with full authority to sign a deal -- and I think the CBA should be ready to sign by then. The one issue that could cost a day or two is that the owners don't want a situation like last time when they were basically forced to sign off on a deal that they hadn't had time to read. It looks like the lawyers have been pretty hard-working these past few weeks, though, and much of the deal is already "done". Hopefully, the owners have had their own lawyers / accountants / whatever combing through that... basically reading through every section of the CBA as it gets done. Otherwise, we could be looking at a slight delay. No more than that slight, though.

[fyo]

According to ESPN, the issue I mentioned as the biggest sticking point (right of first refusal) is off the table.

What's left is peanuts. Really, really small stuff. I have to believe the lawyers can hash out the details over the weekend.

The final details need to be done so the deal can be signed off on in front of Boylan on Tuesday. After that, the NFLPA and owners need to ratify the deal. The owners have a meeting on Thursday, so that would be the obvious time for them to do that. The NFLPA needs to reestablish itself as a union before it can do anything, which various outlets are reporting "could take a couple of days", so maybe... just maybe... a new deal will be ratified by both sides on Thursday.

The timeline in the "Transition Rules" looks likely then:

July 25: Start of 3-day period to sign own free agents.
July 28: Free agency. (And official start of the league year.)

Meanwhile, the NFL has (today) denied reports in a Chicago paper that the HoF Game was cancelled:

http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2011-07-16/nfl-denies-report-that-hall-of-fame-game-has-been-canceled

[fyo]

So... a little cold water on the fire after today's negotiations. The NFLPA lawyers did exactly what media had reported the owners were afraid of: Take some minor issue and blow it up into a deal-breaker. All of a sudden, the players want to $320M in benefits they would have gotten last year, had the CBA been in effect. Hopefully, this is just a ploy to get a decent amount of money from the "TV contracts" lawsuit.

The NFLPA have also presented another new demand, namely that franchise tags only be applicable once per player, such that teams cannot franchise a player in consecutive years.

[Landshark]

So... a little cold water on the fire after today's negotiations. The NFLPA lawyers did exactly what media had reported the owners were afraid of: Take some minor issue and blow it up into a deal-breaker. All of a sudden, the players want to $320M in benefits they would have gotten last year, had the CBA been in effect. Hopefully, this is just a ploy to get a decent amount of money from the "TV contracts" lawsuit.

The NFLPA have also presented another new demand, namely that franchise tags only be applicable once per player, such that teams cannot franchise a player in consecutive years.

Previously, a team could franchise the same player three times. 

I have a good idea to get these issues ironed out.  The owners give the players their $320 mill in benefits they were entitled to, and in return, the players drop their lawsuit for that TV money.  As for the number of times a player can be franchised, they should split the difference.  The owners want to stay at three but the players want only one.  Let's agree to two.

[fyo]

Apparently, the latest news has the players using every "trick" in the book to make ends meet during the lockout:

NFLPA spokesman George Atallah said the players have been whoring very hard and will continue to do so until a deal is done.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d820d9d73/article/reps-for-retirees-join-conversation-as-talks-progress-toward-deal

[Pappy13]

It's simply amazing that they managed to get a deal in place, one day before training camps were suppose to open. 

[fyo]

Hey, as long as it prevents players from having to sell their bodies on the street... (in fairness, the nfl.com article I linked to has been fixed, but seriously, that's one heck of a typo.)