CBA goes to union for vote

The NFL and its players have moved closer to a new collective bargaining agreement and the next decade of labor peace that would come with it.

If the process is at first-andgoal now, though, there’s still work to be done to get into the end zone.

With a late-night vote, on the slim majority approval of the 32 team representatives, the NFL Players Association was preparing Wednesday to send the current CBA proposal to the full union membership for potential ratification. There was no immediate word on how quickly that decisive vote would be conducted.

Last week, the owners flashed their thumbs up with a majority-vote approval of the agreement that’s a product of 10 months of negotiations with a 17-game regular season the most significant change.

“There will be white smoke when there is white smoke,” NFLPA president Eric Winston told reporters in Indianapolis during the NFL scouting combine. “The one thing we’re not doing is rushing though this thing. Every ‘I’ will be dotted, every ‘T’ will be crossed, and when that happens, that happens.”

The NFLPA’s 11-member executive board initially voted down the proposal last week by a slim majority, an indication of mixed feelings within the ranks that count more than 2,000 players. Though a simple majority of votes cast among the membership is the only requirement for ratification, plenty of players have spoken in opposition to the current proposal.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, one of the team reps, revealed on Twitter that he cast one of the votes against. The 17-game season needs to come with more workplace and workload concessions to players, he said.

“Although I do see that there are many things in the proposal that improve the lives and care for past, present and future NFL players, there are issues with others,” Rodgers wrote on his verified account.

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson sounded the alarm more bluntly.

“We should not rush the next 10 years for today’s satisfaction,” Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson tweeted Wednesday as he declared he’d vote no and, in a familiar refrain from NFL players over the years, referenced the benefits and protections of NBA and MLB players as benchmarks for the NFLPA to aim for.

Winston responded to Wilson on Twitter: “No one is rushing into anything. We have spent the last 300 days listening to our guys and negotiating this deal.”

The owners have so far indicated disinterest in reopening negotiations.