NFL owners approved a settlement agreement Thursday night by a vote of 31-0, with the Oakland Raiders abstaining. However, the version of the agreement the owners approved has not been agreed to by the players.
Roger Goodell and Jeff Pash in a press conference described some of the specifics of the agreement their side approved. Some of those specifics they said are:
The agreement is a 10 year deal, running through the end of the 2020 season.
The players receive 48 percent of the revenue in the first year of the deal. The salary cap for this year will be $120 million per team, with a per-team minimum of 89 percent of the cap as long as the league as a whole spends 99 percent of the cap, or $3.8 billion across the league.
Veterans will earn free agency after their fourth season. Rookie contracts are limited to four years with a team option for a fifth year. Rookie salaries will be lowered with a cap on team spending for rookies.
On the player health and safety front, training camps will start later and teams will not be permitted to run full contact “two-a-day” practices. In addition, the limit on off season organized team activities (or OTA’s, as they are commonly known) will be reduced from 14 to 9.
The NFL also announced that the Hall of Fame game, scheduled for August 7 between the Chicago Bears and the St. Louis Rams, will be cancelled.
