NEWSLETTER
This is all happening so fast.
NFL owners have voted to approve terms for the newly proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement. For some background on what the new CBA could bring to the table, I encourage you to check out this post we whipped up on Wednesday. It’s kind of nuts (longer regular season, shorter preseason, expanded playoffs, more).
As for the memo the league’s owners sent out announcing that they have accepted terms of a new CBA, check this out from NFL Network insider Mike Garafolo:
NFL statement on approval of terms for a new CBA pic.twitter.com/XJ67agXpFb
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) February 20, 2020
The memo’s lead is as follows: “Following more than ten months of intensive and thorough negotiations, the NFL Players and clubs have jointly developed a comprehensive set of new and revised terms that will transform the future of the game, provide for players — past, present, and future — both on and off the field, and ensure that the NFL’s second century is even better and more exciting than the first.”
WELP, the ball is now in the players’ hands. How they’ll counter remains to be seen. Will enough votes pass to OK a 17-game season? How will that even work from a scheduling standpoint? Don’t get me wrong. It’s good that there is something concrete worth voting on, I’m just not sure if it’s something both sides will be totally happy with signing off on. But we’ll see.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweets it wasn’t an unanimous vote, but enough owners voted for it to get to this point. Meanwhile, Schefter hears several NFL teams are waiting for the new CBA to go through before executing various roster moves. As Schefter so eloquently puts it, “a flurry of roster moves will follow” if the CBA is approved by all parties.
Part of me wants to get right on down with this CBA to get the ball moving forward on year 101 of the NFL. But a bigger part of me wants to ensure both parties are getting a fair shake in this next CBA. Because 10 years of labor peace could has immense value moving forward.
