The Executive Committee of the NFLPA is scheduled to reconvene in Washington, D.C. on Monday, sources have confirmed. This follows a turbulent week of back and forth and PR football between the NFL and the players.
Saturday, Domonique Foxworth, Raven CB and NFLPA Executive Committee member said via twitter that NFLPA’s work is being done by phone. Numerous reports throughout the day,suggested that negotiations have been moving toward a settlement agreement that worked for both sides.
That said on any given day, at least half of the news on the lockout is wrong so we will have to wait to see the extent of the actual progress. The NFLPA Executive Committee did meet several times last week prior to the NFL owners approving their own version of a settlement agreement.
“The players felt like there was a handshake deal in place and felt like the owners tried to pull one over us at the last second,” Ravens veteran wide receiver Anquan Boldin told the Carroll County Times on Friday. “The players are smart. We know what’s going on. We know we will be playing football. We’re just trying to get the right deal done.”
On Friday evening, Foxworth was, according to his teammates, encouraged by the movement and the process.
As far as process, we understand the Executive Committee will meet and could vote on whether to recommend the settlement to the player class and reconstituting their union. If the Executive Committee votes in favor of recommending the settlement, then they will make a formal recommendation to the 10 named plaintiffs that they accept the terms of the settlement.
A person with knowledge of the NFLPA’s plans told The Associated Press on Saturday that a vote could happen, ”it just depends on what guys feel about what happened this weekend … but (they) are not committing that the executive committee is going to vote on anything.”
There are still a few issues left to resolve. One of the main issues has been the NFL’s requirement that the players recertify as a union as a condition to the owners lifting the lockout. The owners believe that the NFLPA could recertify quickly by using electronic signatures. The NFLPA believes that it should follow the same process used to decertify, which required players to sign cards to authorize the action.
