Crack out the good shoes and the fine wine folks as it looks as though the National Football League season could be back on track by July 15. The weeks and months have gone by with a resolution hoped for and it looks as though they’ve finally taken note of what happened to both the MLB and NHL following strikes. The date is a realistic one and a source on the owners’ side explained that it could even be sooner.
“At this point, you could probably have the terms drawn up by Friday if you wanted to really hurry the process, but two weeks is probably more realistic,” said the source on the owners’ side. “Two weeks for the paperwork is pretty reasonable.”
Roger Goodell did caution reporters not to read too much into it but the grin on the face of New York Giants owner John Mara told its own story.
The terms of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) are thought to be a simple division almost down the middle. Players will receive 48% with the owners getting the other 52%. The players have taken a cut but it doesn’t take into account the guarantees made by teams to spend a higher minimum amount of money (90% of salary cap) each year.
Now that it looks all done and dusted we get to the free agency signing period that could easily be a new sport in itself. Furious might be an understatement and with the rules the same as before it’ll be pretty frickin’ exciting. Even Plaxico Burress can afford to get excited and that hasn’t happened in quite some time.
