Howard Fendrich and Barry Wilner/ Associated Press
The NFL told club executives they could be schooled in the ins and outs of the new labor contract as early as Thursday, and the players’ association summoned its leadership for a potential vote — the strongest signs the lockout might be nearing an end.
Lawyers for both sides met 81/2 hours Monday in New York, including 31/2 with a court-appointed mediator, to try to close a deal to resolve the sport’s first work stoppage since 1987. Talks were scheduled to continue today.
“Making progress,” said NFL Players Association outside counsel Jeffrey Kessler, who also represents locked-out NBA players.
Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith spoke to each other on the telephone Monday and planned to stay in regular contact.
“Nobody cheers for you at Mile 25 of a marathon. You still have to cross the finish line,” NFLPA representative George Atallah said in Washington. “There still are things that can get you tripped up, and we’re going to push through.”
Owners are set to hold a special meeting in Atlanta on Thursday, when they could ratify a new agreement — if there is one. Executives from all 32 teams then would be briefed there Thursday and Friday on how the terms would affect league business, The Associated Press reported.
The clubs reportedly were told Monday that topics would include the 2011 NFL calendar, rookie salary system and guidelines for player transactions.
Any tentative agreement also must be approved by the players, of course, including star quarterbacks Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees and the other plaintiffs in a federal antitrust suit against the league.
Members of the NFLPA executive committee and representatives of every team were heading to Washington by Wednesday, in preparation for possible decisions on re-establishing a union and signing off on a tentative pact with owners.
Atallah said the players would be gathering “with the hope they have something to look at, and with the hope we can move forward on this.”
Owners locked out players on March 12, when the old collective bargaining agreement expired, leaving the country’s most popular professional sports league in limbo. The sides are trying to forge a settlement in time to keep the preseason completely intact. The exhibition opener is supposed to be the Hall of Fame game between the Rams and Bears on Aug. 7.
The regular-season opener is scheduled for Sept. 8, when the Super Bowl champion Packers are to host the Saints.
Eagles quarterback Michael Vick tweeted: “Sound like we gonna be back to work so soon!!!”
One issue standing in the way of a resolution, according to the AP: Players want owners to turn over $320 million in unpaid benefits from the 2010 season. Because there was no salary cap that season, the old collective bargaining agreement said NFL teams were not required to pay those benefits.
On a separate matter, the AP reported a proposal currently under consideration would set up nearly $1 billion over the next 10 years in additional benefits for retired players. That would include $620 million in pension increases, long-term care insurance and disability programs. Representatives of retired players are expected to be in New York for today’s talks; that group complained to the court recently that it had been excluded from negotiations.
In agreement
Areas the NFL owners and players have figured out include:
How the more than $9 billion in annual league revenues will be divided, with somewhere from 46.5 to 48.5 percent going to players, depending on how much the total take from TV contracts and other sources rises or falls
A structure for rookie contracts that will rein in soaring salaries for high first-round draft picks
Free agency rules that allow most four-year veterans to negotiate with any team.
A cap of about $120 million per team for player salaries in 2011, with another $20 million per team in benefits.
Each team must spend at least 90 percent of the salary cap in cash each season, a higher figure than in the past.