New NFL CBA Ends Lockout

The Mexican Standoff between the NFL, Players, and those lawyers no one likes ended today and ProFootballTalk’s Gregg (G3) Rosenthal did an excellent job going over the new Contract Bargaining Agreement between the NFL and it’s players.

Here’s a quick breakdown:

Length: 10 years, no opt-out

Outstanding job on this by everyone! No worries for 10 more years. That’s enough reason to throw a fiesta.

Player Revenue: Players will average 47% of the revenue over the length of the CBA.

Sounds good to me. It makes sense that the boss averages more money than the employee, right?

Rookie Wage Scale: All drafted rookies now succumb to a wage scale that, according to Rosenthal, will effectively drop the top picks’ earning by nearly half.

Thank God! Now Cam Newton won’t make more than Tom Brady and Peyton Manning and we now have the possibility that teams trade up to the top-10 and even number one more often. Plus, playing Madden 12 will be easier.

Undrafted Rookies: Now have a signing bonus cap.

I believe I read elsewhere that 25k is the limit for one rookie and 75k is the total limit.

18-game Season: Died until 2013.

No complaints from me. I don’t want to hear of extra injuries. You can only play the players so much. Plus, the pre-season gave birth to many players…..Wes Welker included. Imagine no Wes Welker because we canceled two pre-season games. We need it.

Salary Cap: Now equal to 2009 and will rise with revenue.

That’s fair. Nothing outrageous and we haven’t watched the NFL turn into the MLB. I’m happy!

The problem is that a “flex” is introduced. You can actually borrow $3 million against a future cap to pay veterans. This will, no doubt, confuse me and others later on.

a few more: padded practices are more heavily regulated during the season. This will, no doubt, lead to sloppy tackling during the season. The days of 70s-style football died today. OTA practices (spring practices) have been reduced down to 10, from 14. And they added a reported $1 billion dollars towards retired players.

I think everyone is happy, they should be.

Oh yeah, in that photo….Dwight Schrute is on the left and my money is on him.