NFL owners approve proposed labor deal; players feel "bamboozled."

[Auggie]

San Francisco Chronicle / 7-22-2011

"Tricked, duped, led astray, hoodwinked, bamboozled."

That, in the words of Redskins defensive end and player representative Vonnie Holliday on Twitter, was what many NFL players were feeling Thursday evening after NFL team owners overwhelmingly voted for a tentative agreement, pending an OK from the players.

Players said the proposal that the owners sent over was, in fact, the owners' own proposal and included language on some issues that the players had not signed off on. And so, while the two sides have reached agreement on the major issues, the 32 teams' player representatives - after a two-hour conference call - did not vote on the tentative agreement to end the 128-day lockout.

The two sides will try to pick it up again today, though the owners will be in Massachusetts attending the funeral of Myra Kraft, the wife of Patriots owner Robert Kraft who passed away from cancer Wednesday.

In fact, maybe part of the problem was that the owners had their limo engines running outside the Atlanta-area hotel so they could catch their evening flights. If they weren't in a rush, then NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's news conference, in which the league passed out a schedule for free agency, might have been a bad power move, a botched attempt to put the onus on the players and open them up to possible fan outrage by not ratifying the "new deal."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/22/SPOA1KDF35.DTL&tsp=1

Thursday's owner vote was 31-0, with the Raiders abstaining from the ratification.

In an ESPN report, Goodell said team training facilities would open Saturday and the new league year would begin Wednesday, contingent on the NFLPA's recertification. The likely start of training camps is estimated to be Aug. 1, sources said.

FULL ESPN STORY: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/6791408/lockout-nfl-owners-approve-proposed-labor-agreement-await-vote-players

Highlights of the Owners' Proposal:

• Ten-year deal, through the 2020 season
• New league year would begin on Wednesday
• Players receive 48 percent of revenue in first portion of deal
• $120 million salary cap; team minimum 89 percent ($106.8M) as long as league spends 99 percent ($3.8 billion)
• Veterans earn free agency after fourth season
• Four-year rookie contracts, with team option for fifth year
• Lower rookie salaries, with cap on team spending for rookies
• Later training camps, no more full-contact, two-a-day practices
• Offseason team activities (OTAs) reduced from 14 to 10