Players & Owners agree on terms; players vote unanimously to ratify new CBA deal

Shortly before 4am on Monday EST. The Players and Owners officially agreed to terms on a new CBA deal. A conference call vote will take place at 11am EST, and the deal will be voted on and passed. At that time things will start rolling on the new season with some teams opening up their doors as early as today.

Rumors as of this moment are that teams can start signing UDFA's and their draft picks and their own free agents as early as tomorrow with full free agency starting on Friday. More information coming as it happens when we get official timelines of when things will start including Free Agency, Signing draft picks, facilities opening up, and training camp starting.

Update 3:00pm EST, just a few minutes ago De Smith and Roger Goodell signed the new 10 yr. CBA deal. It was presented to the Brady plaintiffs and they have accepted the deal as well. Football is back and it couldn't have come soon enough.

Watch the press conference here

:woot: lets play ball:grin1:

Thank god these greedy, spiteful children have finally stopped arguing. Let's get the season started already. Sidenote: is anyone else pumped that fantasy lot all is back on now?

I guess the big question is this, who is heading to training camp?

It's about time! now let's get it on!!!!!!!! Sept. 11 can't get here fast enough!

good now we sign ike and johnathan joseph and bring home the seventh ring
who won the guess the end of the lockout contest i know i didnt

Quote:

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Originally Posted by A Pac

Thank god these greedy, spiteful children have finally stopped arguing. Let's get the season started already. Sidenote: is anyone else pumped that fantasy lot all is back on now?

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lol That was the first thing that crossed through my head "Oh great the billionaires and millionaires stopped fighting with each other."

The expected NFL free-agent frenzy may begin as soon as Monday afternoon if the NFL Players Association signs off on a timeline being discussed, a source at the highest level told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.

Free-agent and trade negotiations may begin Tuesday and transactions can be filed with the league office Friday at 6 p.m. ET, according to an updated timeline for league business to begin, sources told ESPN.com's John Clayton.

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 from league sources:

- 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: 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., and sources said they will recommend approval of the settlement with the NFL's owners.

A high-ranking NFLPA executive told ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen that lawyers on both sides are finalizing some of the language on the settlement agreement. Members of the NFLPA executive committee and some of the named plaintiffs are in Washington, D.C., on Monday to review the final deal.

Once the lead plaintiffs in the Tom Brady antitrust lawsuit against the NFL and the NFLPA executive committee are comfortable with the final deal, they will then -- along with NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith -- present the final settlement to the 32 player representatives for a vote.

According to the source, it's not going to be a "rubber stamp" vote but players should vote to approve the settlement.

Smith, who hopes to mend fences with NFL's retired players, has 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.

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.
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Team voluntary conditioning starts tomorrow

Drafted and undrafted rookies can sign tomorrow 10 am

Players can be cut or waived on Thursday

Free agency opens on Friday at 6pm

30 training camps can start on Friday

jets and Texans camps can start on Sunday.

when can you sign your own free agents? its not just a free for all on friday is it?