NFLPA will wait to vote on new CBA
Having 17-game season tipping point for players
NEW YORK — NFL player representatives decided Friday to not vote on a new labor deal approved by team owners, and the union instead will meet with league negotiators at the scouting combine Tuesday in Indianapolis.
“Today the NFLPA Board of Players Representatives did not take a vote on the principal terms of a proposed new collective bargaining agreement,” the union said in a statement. “Our player leadership looks forward to meeting with NFL management again next week before the board takes a vote shortly after.”
The union’s executive committee voted 6-5 Friday to recommend rejecting the terms of the new CBA that NFL owners approved Thursday.
Eventually, the entire NFL Players Association membership must vote on an agreement.
The owners proposal features a 17game season, shorter preseason, larger rosters and limits on the number of international games. Objections to an expanded regular season are considered the main stumbling block for player approval.
The union’s executive committee includes NFLPA President Eric Winston, former Giants linebacker Mark Herzlich and former Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander, all retired; Giants long snapper Zak DeOssie; 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman; Patriots tight end Benjamin Watson; Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri; Chargers tackle Russell Okung; Saints punter Thomas Morstead; Buccaneers linebacker Sam Acho; and Giants safety Mike Thomas.
Several people familiar with the terms say they feature increases in minimum salaries, changes in practice squad makeup and eligibility, and reduced offseason and preseason requirements as pivotal parts of the deal.
Those people spoke to The Associated
Press on condition of anonymity because specific details of the provisions in the agreement that would run through 2030 are not being made public.
An expansion of the playoffs to seven teams in each conference, with only the top seed in the AFC and NFC getting a wild-card bye, can be instituted by the league without any negotiations — as long as the postseason remains in a fourweek format. Several owners are strongly in favor of doing so regardless of the CBA status.
One of the wild-card weekend games might wind up as a Monday night contest.
The 17-game schedule actually is a compromise offer for some owners who wanted 18 games. Adding the one regularseason match would seem to indicate each of those games would be at a neutral site.
But the league has promised the union to cap the number of international games and that there would not be a full week of such contests. More likely is a continued mix of games in England (and other European sites) and Mexico. Most team schedules will have nine home games and eight road games in alternating years.
The preseason would be reduced from four games to three, not counting the Hall of Fame game that starts the exhibition schedule.
Training camp padded practices would be reduced from a total of 28 to 16. A fiveday acclimation period would precede summer practices. There would be more days off during camp — eight instead of five — and a limit on joint practices.
Rosters would expand from 53 to 55, with 48 players able to dress for games rather than the current 46. Practice squads would go from 10 players to 12 and eventually to 14, probably by 2022. There would be more flexibility for protecting practice squaders from becoming free agents.
Suspensions for a positive test for marijuana likely would end, except for cases of tampering with a test. But doctors appointed by the league and union would have the ability to recommend players sit if they are not under treatment or are at risk if they suit up.