Jay Glazer, a/k/a The Groundhog, is back.
With only one prior report regarding the status of CBA talks (Glazer broke the news of a De Smith conference call in which the NFLPA* executive director told a group of elite players that a deal isn’t close, which amounted to Glazer seeing his shadow and predicting six more weeks of labor unrest), FOX’s Jay Glazer says that, in the wee hours of Monday morning, the league and the players agreed to terms on a new labor deal.
But Glazer also acknowledges that the players still must approve the deal, which would come after the NFLPA* Executive Committee and the board of player representatives recommend its acceptance.
Given the ups and downs and highs and lows of the past several weeks, we’re not going to regard the deal as done until it’s done. On Sunday, we were told that the class action filed by Hall of Fame defensive end Carl Eller and other retired players on behalf of all retired players could still screw this thing up, given the plaintiffs’ new position that they no longer want the NFLPA* negotiating the benefits to be made available to retired players.
Indeed, Glazer acknowledges that "[t]here is still a chance that some unforeseen obstacle can somehow stall the agreement again, although that now seems unlikely.” That “unforeseen obstacle” could be the foreseen interference of Eller and company.
Thus, the cork is staying in the champagne on this one until it’s all official.
Glazer also reports that facilities will open as early as Tuesday, that training camp will open for 10 teams Wednesday, another 10 teams Thursday, and the last two on Sunday. Free agency, per Glazer, could start as early as Friday or Saturday.
We’ve got our fingers crossed for Friday, since we don’t want PFT Planet to have to follow the free-agency frenzy on their non-work time.
Glazer’s report fills in none of the gaps regarding the terms that were open as of Sunday, most notably the presence of an opt-out provision that could shorten the agreement from 10 to seven years.