After a long week of meetings in New York City, the NFL players and owners have ended meetings for the day today and released a joint statement.
Work will continue through the weekend, as NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith told reporters on exiting the meeting that he and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell would likely speak before Monday, saying “I’m sure I’ll talk to Roger over the weekend.” Smith also told reporters that some of the legal team will stay behind Friday and continue working.
Also, at the end of the meeting on Friday, the NFL sent all 32 teams a memo saying it was working on an agreement and would hold a debriefing on the status at the scheduled league meeting on Thursday in Atlanta, team sources told ESPN. The memo also reminded teams that the lockout rules remain in effect.
The joint statement released by the NFLPA and the NFL reads, “The discussions this week have been productive and progress has been made on a wide range of issues. Our legal and financial teams will continue to work through the weekend. We will continue to respect the confidentiality orders of Chief Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan and will therefore refrain from commenting on specific issues or aspects of the negotiations. We will provide additional information as developments in this process continue.”
The meetings ran very late Thursday night, and the two sides reportedly reached agreement on several key financial issues, including the structure of the rookie wage scale and the initial salary cap figure for next year.
The talks appeared to have stalled on Friday afternoon over a free-agency rule, as reported by ESPN. The remaining issues include the NFL’s desire for an extra right-of-first refusal on free agents for this year, which the players have been unwilling to grant, since many of those free agents were restricted under last year’s uncapped system and would have otherwise been free agents a year earlier.
Other issues still left to be resolved include several topics related to health and safety of the players, and benefits for retired players. In addition, the two sides must resolve the issues with the plaintiffs in the case of Brady vs. NFL, and finalize agreement on who will oversee the new CBA – the courts or an arbitration panel.
