After us all getting our hopes up on Thursday when the owners unanimously approved their version of the CBA and settlement offer, the players dashed those hopes by saying "not so fast you crafty owners!" Well, both sides worked over the weekend and now football is back as the NFLPA has unanimously approved the new CBA. Thus ending our 136 day-long nightmare.
Say what you will about the World-Wide Leader, they are on top of the latest in the NFL labor negotiations (likely because they are just anxious to dust off and roll out their Brady shrine). Anyway, they have "sources" that are fairly connected and embedded among the negotiating parties, so they've been able to sneak out some information from the front-lines and we have a tentative timeline of how the league will operate in the coming days.
- Today (Monday): Teams will be allowed to go to a 90-man roster and teams will receive the list of available free agents.
- Tomorrow (Tuesday): Beginning at 7:00AM PDT, teams will be able to begin reaching agreements with rookies and undrafted free agents. Teams will also be allowed to reach agreements with all other free agents, and signed players are allowed to enter team facilities.
- Wednesday: There are conflicting reports here. ESPN says players can report to training camp 15 days before their first preseason game. That puts 10 teams opening training camp on Wednesday (Chargers included), 10 on Thursday, 10 on Friday, leaving the Jets and Texans as the last two teams to be able to open training camp on Sunday.
- Thursday: Teams can cut players starting at 1:00PM PDT.
- Friday: Teams can file transactions with the league at 3:00PM PDT.
- August 4th: Deadline for the union to recertify and ratify the new CBA.