NFL and Players Contract Deadline Approaches

NFL and NFL Players CBA Deadline Nears

The current collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the NFL Players Association will come to an end at 11:59 EST today. Unless both sides can reach an agreement, which appears very unlikely, a lock-out impacting the 2011 season will likely result.

While they have not been able to make much headway in the negotiation process thus far, today both sides were discussing an extension to the CBA deadline. This extension would give them more time to reach an agreement, but it would still bring all 2011 football related activities to a halt until an agreement were reached. This strategy proved successful during the 2006 negotiations when a deal was reached during a time extension.

In a report from the NFL web site, NFL Network’s Albert Breer reported that the NFL offered the extension of the CBA deadline, but the union wants the league to more thoroughly demonstrate that it’s serious about negotiating in good faith toward a deal.

If no deal or extension is reached, the players union will likely move to decertify. This would mean that the union would no longer represent the players. If this were to happen, the players would lose their rights under labor law and would be bound to a court’s decision.