UPDATE: Per ESPN, the NFLPA will vote Monday to accept the CBA proposed by the owners, and players will report to training camps Wednesday and vote to recertify as a union.
UPDATE: Per NFL Network, the NFLPA will not necessarily wait until Monday to approve or reject the league's new labor proposal. Players will continue to communicate internally while the (current) trade association studies the parameters of the CBA framework owners submitted to them late Thursday. "There is no definitive timeline," said Seahawks player rep Chester Pitts. "Hopefully by weekend's end, we'll be ready to go with all the information."
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ATLANTA -- NFLPA team representatives sent e-mails Friday to their players, informing them that team reps will meet Monday to "discuss options" after the owners' ratification of a proposed collective bargaining agreement Thursday.
The message read in part, according to ESPN:
"Because of the passing of Myra Kraft in Boston, the NFLPA will not be making any public statements in honor of the Kraft family. Our recommendation is for everyone to stay put and keep doing what you are doing where you are doing it. We will meet again on Monday to discuss our options and the direction we want to go."
However, NFLPA leaders told ESPN that they plan to communicate with the executive board and player reps over the weekend.
NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith was in the Boston area Friday attending the services for Kraft, wife of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who died Wednesday at 68 after a battle with cancer.
Nearly 150 club executives gathered for a four-hour seminar earlier on Friday in Atlanta, where operational rules and details under the NFL's proposed labor deal were outlined, but left without one key bit of information: when they will apply.
"We just don't know," said Panthers GM Marty Hurney. "I don't have any timetable. All we're doing is preparing and waiting for them to say when."
Upon announcing ratification of the league owners' labor proposal on Thursday night, the NFL hoped to end its prolonged lockout on Saturday and re-open team facilities to players. Yet that plan was contingent on approval from the union's executive board.
With the NFLPA refusing to vote on whether to accept or reject the proposal during a conference call on Thursday night that included the 32-member board of player reps -- players have pointed to unresolved issues -- the team general managers and other key executives left their seminar in an undeniable holding pattern.
"We've put our pens down," Packers president Mark Murphy told our friends at the Green Bay Press Gazette. "We've negotiated in good faith with the union. We've reached an agreement on all the key points. They know what we ratified, and they're voting to ratify the same thing."
Colts president Bill Polian said the executives were told during Friday's seminar to await instruction from the league on when they will be allowed to open facilities. Broncos president John Elway, the Hall of Fame quarterback, said the teams are "still in lockout mode."
Even so, the executives were briefed on key changes that would occur under the proposed 10-year labor pact, which include a rookie wage system and transition rules for a new salary cap that is to be set at $120.4 million for 2011.
Executives were tight-lipped about specific details, and some declined comment. While the NFL revealed that the rookie system will limit contracts to all draft picks to four years, with a club option for a fifth year for first rounders, it is still unknown what percentage of the overall cap will be devoted to rookies and what anti-holdout rules would be implemented.
Other proposed changes include:
- A stipulation that, collectively, the clubs will make cash expenditures of at least 99% of the cap in 2011 and 2012, and at least 95% from 2013 through 2020. The cap "floor" for each team during the final eight years of the deal would be 89%.
- In 2011, each club can borrow up to $3 million in cap room from a future year, which may be used for veteran contracts. In 2012, each club could borrow $1.5 million of room.
"We're all operating under the same set of rules," Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland said. "And now we all kind of know what we're dealing with. It's good to get, really for the first time, the details of what's been proposed."
They just hope it's not too long before they can take the next steps.
"We're ready," said Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum. "My kids are ready for me to get back to work."
Contributing: Robert Klemko, Nate Davis
See photos of: New York Jets, Indianapolis Colts, Denver Broncos, Miami Dolphins, Carolina Panthers
Source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomSports-TopStories/~3/GW01b4szp8s/1
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