At some point today, we might receive the official word that the NFL Lockout is over and that a new collective bargaining agreement has been reached. Or, we might not -- that all depends on settling a few things.
Based on various reports, here is the latest: the players did not vote on Wednesday as originally thought. Instead, the player reps for each team conditionally seemed to give their approval for the CBA, but passed things off to the ten plaintiffs in the Brady antitrust case. That, as well as the TV rights case, need to be settled before a new CBA can be reached. Reports came out that Vincent Jackson and Logan Mankins were being stubborn (wanting $10 million as part of the settlement for the antitrust case); whether that holds anything up remains to be seen.
Other than that, the player reps put the rest of the issues in the hands of DeMaurice Smith to work out. The owners will be voting today on the CBA, and they only need 24 of 32 votes to approve it. If the players get things worked out with their cases, they are expected to try to re-certify the union by taking a conference call vote from all 1900 of the league's players. There is a lot that needs to happen today, but the reports from the media haven't suggested any sense of panic.
We'll keep you up-to-date with any late-breaking news regarding the lockout today.