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NFLPA approves labor deal
The NFL Players Association executive board and 32 team reps have voted unanimously to approve the terms of a deal to the end the 41/2-month lockout.
Trades can be made beginning Tuesday and free-agent signings can be filed with the league office Friday at 6 p.m. ET, according to the timeline for league business to begin.
Teams may begin negotiating with unrestricted free agents beginning Tuesday.
A source at the highest-level had earlier told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter that those talks might begin as soon as Monday afternoon and the league year would have begun Aug. 2, if the NFL Players Association signed off on it.
The updated timeline:
• Monday: The NFL will announce that teams can go to 90-man rosters and the official free-agent list will be distributed to teams.
• Tuesday: Trading begins. Teams can reach agreements with rookies and undrafted free agents beginning at 10 a.m. ET. Teams can reach agreements with all free agents and signed players are allowed to enter team facilities.
• Wednesday: Players can begin reporting to training camps 15 days before their first preseason games. According to the proposed timeline, 10 teams would report on Wednesday, 10 more on Thursday and 10 additional teams on Friday. The New York Jets and Houston Texans would be the last two teams to report, on Sunday.
• Thursday: Teams can begin to cut players at 4 p.m. ET.
• Friday: Teams can begin filing transactions to the league office at 6 p.m. ET.
• Aug. 4: Deadline for recertification and ratification of the collective bargaining agreement by the players.
The NFLPA executive committee began meeting at 11 a.m. Monday in Washington, D.C..
Smith, who hopes to mend fences with NFL's retired players, had a conference call Monday morning with the former players to share with them the gains that they made in this deal, including the unprecedented "legacy fund."
The final process for negotiating the new collective bargaining agreement will begin after the settlement agreement is passed and the NFLPA recertifies as a union. Benefits and health care, handling of grievances and the substance-abuse policy are all things that players will negotiate after they reform as a union, but the lack of a CBA will not hold up 2011 league business from beginning.
The NFL will hold two conference calls Monday afternoon, one for league general managers at 3 p.m. ET, and another for coaches at 5 p.m. ET, league sources told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.
Owners overwhelmingly approved a proposal last week, but some unresolved issues still needed to be figured out to satisfy players; the owners do not need to vote again.
The major economic framework for the deal was worked out more than a week ago.
That included how the more than $9 billion in annual league revenues will be divided (about 53 percent to owners and 47 percent to players over the next decade; the old CBA resulted in nearly a 50-50 split); a per-club cap of about $120 million for salary and bonuses in 2011 -- and at least that in 2012 and 2013 -- plus about $22 million for benefits; a salary system to rein in spending on first-round draft picks; and unrestricted free agency for most players after four seasons.
Source: AP