It's now or never when it comes to ending the NFL Lockout (OK, maybe not that extreme, but with how close an agreement seems to be, anything short of a delay would seem like a big setback). NFL owners and players met for about 8.5 hours on Monday, according to Albert Breer of the NFL Network. Judge Boylan flew in to attend for 3.5 of those hours. In my opinion, Monday was the day to set the stage for the rest of the week -- to make sure everyone was on the same page with what is going to be presented day-by-day.
On Tuesday, both parties with meet with Boylan, presumably for a longer period of time, starting at 9:00 AM EST. They will try to resolve out the few remaining issues, which seem to include $320 million in lost player benefits from 2010, workers compensation issues, and a reduction of offseason workouts. I expect a final decision to be made on each of these issues by the end of Tuesday.
That will set the stage for Wednesday, when meetings will include player reps from all 32 NFL teams. I assume Scott Fujita will be in attendance as the Browns' representative. The player reps won't vote right then-and-there, but they will update the 1900 players around the league with what the proposed CBA looks like. If everything goes well, 50% of the players vote to re-certify the union, probably on Thursday.
Also on Thursday will be the league meetings, where the owners will have the final vote to ratify the agreement and put it into effect. Everyone has a plan is that takes place, according to Breer:
In a memo sent Monday to all 32 teams, the league said that if all goes to plan, it will stage a "labor seminar" to educate clubs on the terms of the new deal, starting 90 minutes after ratification Thursday and continuing Friday at another hotel in Atlanta. Each team can have four reps, plus its owner, at that meeting.
We'll keep you up-to-date with all of the latest here on Dawgs By Nature as things go down Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.