NFL Lockout Ending? Players & Owners Set to Vote on CBA Wednesday

Much to the delight of football fans, the NFL Lockout looks as though it is in serious peril. The players and owners had several productive meetings last week, seemingly coming to an agreement on a number of issues, including a rookie wage scale, a revamped free agency format, a salary cap floor, and a new structure for dividing up the league’s massive revenue. Both parties are set to vote on the new deal tomorrow in the nation’s capital.

Stories have leaked out over the past several days about the details of a new collective bargaining agreement between the league’s owners and its players. It appears that all the major hurdles standing in the way of a 2011 NFL season have been cleared; however, there are still a few things that need cleaning up before the two parties can ratify a deal.

The items that need addressing before the lockout can be lifted are Tom Brady’s anti-trust suit against the league, a suit involving increased benefits for retired players, and a potential case against the owners regarding their attempts to setup “lockout insurance”.

Since a new CBA is basically in place and ready to be voted on, there have been discussions about rolling the three aforementioned issues into that vote. The details for working out each matter would be included in the new arrangement between the league and its players, allowing the suits to be dropped and the lockout to be lifted should the players union, which still must re-certify, accept the terms of the new CBA.

If the deal does receive a passing vote and the league officially ratifies it on Thursday, the pre-season and the league’s regular season schedule would avoid disruption.