Our (not so) long national nightmare is over. The world will continue to spin on fall Sundays – bars and stadiums will still be full, yards will still be left undone, and non-football fans will still need to find something to do with other non-football fans. Owners and the union formerly known as the NFL Players Association have tentatively reached an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement, ending the four and a half month lockout.
The situation looked dire when owners first locked out the newly decertified players back in March, but negotiations both court-mandated and otherwise have proven fruitful. The players, looking for new concessions from owners on player health and revenue capture, came away with quite a haul in the proposed terms. The owners did not get their coveted 18 game regular season but did play defense relatively well in terms of salary cap issues and the new rookie wage scale.
Among the highlights of the proposed ten-year agreement:
- Practice Limitations – Organized team activities (OTAs) are reduced from 14 to 10 with the off-season program – mandatory workouts and the like – reduced by five weeks. Players get more days off during the off-season and pre-season, and practice time and padded contact is limited.
- Player Health – Players can now maintain the NFL’s medical plan for life, probably after some vetting period, with enhanced coverage limits. No change to the current 16 game regular season schedule, and higher research funding for healthcare studies (specifically focusing on concussion research) and charitable giving.
- Retirement Benefits – Additional benefits for already retired players with an especially large chunk ($600,000,000+) devoted to players who retired over 18 years ago.
- Rookies – There will be a new rookie wage scale slotting in compensation requirements for a certain draft pick, which may or may not have already been set in specific terms. Mandatory four-year contracts (with club-optional fifth year tender for first rounders) for all drafted rookies, after which the player becomes an unrestricted free agent. Undrafted rookies sign three-year contracts. Contracts will be extremely limited and mostly standard with strong anti-holdout rules.
- Cap Rules – Salary cap now set based on revenue sources. Players must receive 55% of national media revenue, 45% of NFL Ventures revenue, and 40% of local club revenue. Player share must average 47% of all league revenue for the 10 year agreement, and both sides can true up future salary caps to maintain this 47% average. No team can spend less than 89% of the salary cap in any given year, and the league must spend 95% of the cap in every season under the agreement.
So what’s next?
The player representatives from all 32 league teams will get on a conference call with the commissioner and league officials. A simple majority is all that’s needed to constitute a tentative agreement between the owners who proposed the agreement and the players who have accepted it. The players will, in all likelihood, accept the agreement.
One complication is the antitrust lawsuit filed by Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and others. Since they are still effectively part of the players trade group (remember, not a union after decertifying) they would have to agree to settle/withdraw their lawsuit for the owners to formally agree to the new proposal. They have said publicly that any agreement between the owners and players would end their lawsuit and they would settle with the league immediately. Upon tentative agreement of the players and withdrawal/settlement of the antitrust lawsuit, the owners would formally end the lockout.
Next, in order for the CBA to be voted on, the players would have to vote to recertify the NFLPA. A majority vote of the 1,900+ current players is all that’s needed to recertify the union, which they could do after the lockout is lifted by owners. After the union is back in place, the NFLPA could then formally vote on the terms of the new collective bargaining agreement.
There are some terms, like drug testing and the league’s conduct policy, that cannot be negotiated until the union is fully reformed. These can be negotiated after the CBA is agreed to and the pre-season officially begins, but both sides will want to take care of such issues as soon as possible.
What about free agency?
There have been multiple reports about how free agency will be handled in the very short term. Some reports have indicated that teams can re-sign their free agents anytime before full free agency opens on Friday. Others have said that players can negotiate with any team, including the one they’re leaving, upon CBA agreement but cannot sign a contract until Friday. Lastly some others have said that no negotiation can happen with any team at all until full free agency begins on Friday. Either way, it looks like 6pm ET on Friday will be the opening of the free agent period.
Will game schedules change?
Even though the agreement was signed so late in July, it looks like all teams will be able to get four pre-season games in with the full regular season starting on time. The only game cancelled to this point is the Hall of Fame game, which was scheduled for August 5th and is typically the first pre-season game each year. The Bears and Rams, who were slotted to play in the game, will play another pre-season game in August.
So who really won and lost in this lockout process?
Winners: The owners and players worked together to avoid the kind of crippling stoppage that decimated baseball in the 90s and hockey in the 00s. Both sides won key battles – the owners played defense and still keep the majority of revenue while the players scored key benefits and maintained a 16 game schedule.
Losers: Any rookie who chose to stay in school for the 2011 season (or beyond) instead of coming out in 2010 cost himself a boatload of cash. Rookies in this year’s class and into the future will be making far less than their already-drafted compatriots. Also, new rookies will have very little time to work out with their team/coaches prior to the season, putting teams relying on 2011 draft picks to contribute right away at a disadvantage. New coaches will also be at a disadvantage, as they’ll have just weeks to evaluate talent and install gameplans before making drastic cuts and playing games that count.
In the end, the biggest winner is us. Joe and Joan Q. Football Fan, who sweat out the lockout every bit as much as players and owners, now have professional football to look forward to this fall. There will still be leaves to rake, and bathrooms to clean, and family dinners to attend, but at least there will be football. Can you imagine having to do all that this fall without Sunday football to look forward to?
Update 2:40pm – According to ESPN’s John Clayton, the rookie wage scale implemented with this class of draftees will mean Cam Newton, the #1 overall pick, will be eligible for a 4 year, $22million contract. To put that in perspective, Sam Bradford, the #1 overall pick in the 2010 draft, signed a 6 year, $78million contract. On a salary per year basis, the closest pick to Newton’s terms was the #12 pick, Ryan Mathews, who signed a 5 year, $25.65million deal.
In the event that a team picks up a fifth year option on a first round pick, the 5th year salary will be the average of the 10 highest paid players at his position in the league.
