((ht:chris mortensen/espn-nationalfootballpost))
NOTE-We'd add a photo, but Blogger doesn't seem to want to let us today
They are getting there. We think it will be wrapped up sooner rather than later, so fret not, ye fan of spending inordinate amounts of money on tickets, you will still get your chance.
ESPN.com's Chris Mortensen reported on Tuesday a somewhat detailed list of what the NFL Owners and players were close to agreeing on. Mort said the Jolly Roger (commish Goodell) presented it Tuesday at a meeting in Chicago.
And it is complicated, though quite a bit different from where this stupid negotiation started.
The short version:
The Owners are proposing a 52/48 percent revenue split with the players. Not the 50/50 the players wanted, but close. And it is a lot closer than what they originally wanted.
The cash minimum is almost at 100%. Essentially, this would eliminate or lessen the chances of deferred payments on contracts. At least I think that is what it means. The Owners haven't been willing to do this...until now. The players wanted it, they wanted there money when they play, not later.
Franchise tags would stay, unrestricted free agency would come after 4-years rather than 6.
There will be a rookie pay scale. Details haven't been ironed out, but you won't see 1st round picks getting inordinate amounts of money before they ever play. JaMarcus Russell and Ryan Leaf are prime examples of why this is needed.
No 18-game season, for now. The players hate this, the owners want it because it means more stadium revenue for them. We don't think this is necessary, but what we think doesn't matter.
Read a good, detailed summary of this from Andrew Brandt of the National Football Post RIGHT HERE
Okay, so what does this mean?
It means, like we said earlier, the deal is almost done. We fully expect within the next couple weeks to see an agreement. We said from day 1, this would be done by the time training camp rolled around at the end of July and it looks like we were right.
There's too much at stake for both sides here for this to have dragged on. Though both were stubborn and at time childish through the negotiations, they had to forge an agreement. They've been warned if they don't, the courts would make a decision for them and neither side would like it.
Yes, it is incredibly frustrating to see that neither the players nor the owners understand they still have the potential for killing the goose that lays their "Golden Egg". Had this dragged on, what little support either side had from the fans, would have been gone had games gone away. And while both sides can act at times like 6-year olds, they both, when push comes to shove are truly business people and they understand that this all revolves around one thing: MONEY.
With that in mind and the inability due to a blogger malfunction to post photos, we'll try this video:
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