I Want Football!!! And I Want It Now!!!

Today was supposed to be the end.  I’s were being dotted and T’s were being crossed.  Football was coming back.  The NFL lockout has been in effect now since March, 11^th, 127 days, and it has been missed.  Football is probably the only sport (maybe baseball and spring training), where the fans care just as much about the offseason OTA's and training camps as they do about the regular and post season.  People care so much about the NFL offseason that ESPN’s NFL Live is the only sports specific analytic show that runs on the network for the entire year.  And today, today was suppose to be our Renaissance.  It was suppose to be the death of the dreaded lockout and a rebirth of a new NFL.  It looks like we will have to wait at least one more day, as the NFL Players Association has decided to hold off on voting for the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).  Tomorrow may come and we may see the lockout end, but it can't come soon enough.

Below is a brief breakdown of the new CBA, as provided to us by ESPN.com.  Most would like to chop it simply as millionaires fighting with billionaires, but I see it a little differently.  I have always been pro-player in most of these disputes, but this new CBA seems very fair for both parties, and them signing a 10-year agreement proves that both sides seem to have gotten what they set out to accomplish with this holdout.  For me, the three main things that needed to be change in the NFL that the new CBA addresses were:  Rookie wage scale, teams using most of their salary cap, and no 18 game season.  Rookies were getting paid WAY too much once drafted and everyone agreed that needed to be changed.   Teams required to spend most of the salary cap helps with the competitive balance in the NFL and will prevent some teams from doing what some MLB (Major League Baseball) teams do in pocketing revenue for profit and not putting it back into the team.  And lastly, an 18 game season is this ridiculous.  Players are already killing themselves out on the field during a 16 game season, imagine the amount of injuries that would occur during an 18 game season.  Check out the rest of the points below.   

 According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, John Clayton and Adam Schefter, the proposed collective bargaining agreement includes the following details:
• Players get 48 percent of "all revenue," without extra $1-billion-plus off top that previously had been requested by owners.
• Players' share will never dip below 46.5 percent, under new formula being negotiated.
• Teams required to spend close to 100 percent of the salary cap.
• Rookie wage scale part of deal but still being "tweaked."
• Four years needed for unrestricted free-agent status. Certain tags will be retained, but still being discussed.
• 18-game regular season designated only as negotiable item and at no point is mandated in deal.
• New 16-game Thursday night TV package beginning in 2012.
• Owners still will get some expense credits that will allow funding for new stadiums.
• Retirees to benefit from improved health care, pension benefits as revenue projected to double to $18 million by 2016.

Both owners and players have agreed to add three additional provisions to the new CBA, a league source told ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio.  Those three points are: 
• Enhanced injury protection benefit -- In addition to a player's salary in the season he is injured, the player would get up to $1 million for the first year after the injury, and up to $500,000 in the second year.
• Players get to stay in the league-sponsored player medical plan for life, if they so choose.
• An annual increase in minimum salaries for players -- 10 percent increase for rookies, 12 percent for second-year players and the increases will continue throughout the life of the proposed 10-year CBA. That would mean a 10 percent increase in rookie salary for 2011 over the 2010 salary and then a 10 percent increase for rookies in 2012 salary over 2011 salary. Approximately 1,000 of the 1,890 NFL players in 2010 were minimum-salary players, according to the league.

In a normal year, dead-hard fans (present blogger included) would be fully immersed in two-a-days and closely watching the offseason player movement via free agency and cuts.  We would be engaging in discussions on whether or not our team should resign a holdout or anxiously awaiting a player to except the franchise tag our team placed on him.  We would also be monitoring our team’s rookies and new free agent acquisitions to see how they are adopting to the system and grasping the playbook.  But for the last 127 days, all we have been able to do is sit, and wait, and watch court room litigation drama and mediation.  As exciting as that may be to some people, the majority of use want helmets cracking and shoulder pads smashing.  I want football!!!  And I want it now!!!


Mr. Armchair Speaking