The deadline to finalize the new CBA is this Thursday, and the league and players are continuing to negotiate. The Associated Press reported that it received an e-mail from Greg Aiello saying that, “The NFL and NFLPA staffs have been working for the past few days on the final details of the new CBA.”
A person familiar with the negotiations stated that the NFL Players Association voted to recertify as a union and is negotiating the last terms of the new collective bargaining agreement. Only a union can collectively bargain on items such as benefits, drug testing and the player conduct policy.
Mark Maske of the Washington Post has reported via Twitter that all issues are expected to be resolved before Thursday’s deadline. He also reported that the issues yet to be resolved include proposed HGH blood testing of players and how appeals of discipline are handled under the drug and personal conduct policies.
Brian Dawkins, safety with the Denver Broncos and a player representative, “De[Maurice Smith] and those guys will continue to hash those things out.” he said. “We have nothing but 100 percent trust in De. He knows what we want. He knows what obviously we need.”
