The road to the end of the NFL lockout continues to take steps forward, but today's step might be a little more significant than the others. According to reports on ESPN, it looks as though the owners and the players have come to an agreement on the rookie wage scale. The scale was considered to be the major remaining holdup in the collective bargaining agreement.
A management negotiator told ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen that the rookie system is "done," but expected there to be some "tweaking" when the deal is written out. The exact language of the system is being worked out by both side's lawyer, sources told Mortensen.
The specific details of the rookie wage scale have not been revealed to the public yet. Among the issues that remain unresolved are workman's compensation, extra right-of-first-refusals on this year's free agent class, settlement on the television damages and the antitrust lawsuit and issues relating to commercial sponsorships, per ESPN. Those issues are expected to be touched on Friday morning as the two sides prepare to meet in court Tuesday in Minneapolis. Optimistic reports say that a complete deal could be put together as soon as Monday or Tuesday. We hope so!
By the way, our Seahawks affiliate has done a good job of covering lockout details. Feel free to check out their post, as they followed the rookie wage situation most of today.