NFL lockout could end on July 21

Ratifying the agreement next week in Atlanta depends solely in the rookie pool talks, which is the only obstacle left.

With the rookie wage scale as the only issue left that could cause a problem, the NFL and NFL Players Association are confident in signing a new collective bargaining agreement in the next days, which would allow them to end with the longest lockout in league history. Sources familiar with the progress of the talks predict that during the July 21 meetings in Atlanta the agreement could be ratified.

Identified as the most complex issue of the talks, the rookie wage system is keeping both sides from reaching an overall agreement.

While the NFLPA wants that after four years the rookie class becomes free agents, team owners want to structure a fifth-year option for all first-round draft picks.

Their point of contention is that for this fifth-year option owners want to establish a fixed amount that hardly makes it to $ 4 million, while players want that amount to be based in the average of the top-10 players at their position.

It is the progress reached this week towards a new rookie wage system that will determined whether an agreement indeed will be ratified within the July 21st time frame. If no more setbacks are experienced and a new CBA is signed, both sides would then submit to a document know as “The Transition Rules”, which is an outlined plan for the 2011 season.

Appointed by the league’s Chief Executive Committee a group of team executives compiled an off-season timeline for the moment the new CBA was signed. The plan previously outlined for a July 1st deal would be adjusted for a hypothetical July 21st agreement, which would set July 28th as the day that the league year starts and that the free agency begins.

But just like the new CBA depends on the new rookie wage system to be ratified, so does The Transition Rules to set the deadline for rookies to sign their contracts.

Despite this if we were to make an analogy as to how close things are from the touchdown zone we could say that owners and players have reached the 10-yard line after four months of negotiations.

A reciprocal effort from the team owners is going to be needed if they want to end this rookie pools in good terms, since the player have already done their part by agreeing to cut rookie compensation in half. Now they are waiting on the owners to do their part by accepting that the rookie class becomes free agents after four years, and not in five like they are trying to impose.

If good terms were reached with a split of an all-revenue model, which was the major issue in dispute, there aren’t reasons to believe that the rookie pool negotiations won’t end up the same way.

Hopefully all this drama will be useful to avoid future confrontations of this kind, and as a call of attention to the NBA that is going through the same situation right now.