NFL players vote to ratify a new CBA, giving the league labor peace through 2030
The NFL officially has labor peace through 2030.
The NFL Players Association on Sunday morning announced that the players have voted to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with owners of the league’s teams.
“NFL players have voted to approve ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement by a vote tally of 1,019 to 959,” the NFLPA said in a statement. “This result comes after a long and democratic process in accordance with our constitution. An independent auditor received submitted ballots through a secure electronic platform, then verified, tallied and certified the results.”
The NFL’s front office also expressed satisfaction about passage of the new pact.
“We are pleased that the players have voted to ratify the proposed new CBA, which will provide substantial benefits to all current and retired players, increase jobs, ensure continued progress on player safety, and give our fans more and better football,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a released statement. “We appreciate the tireless efforts of the members of the Management Council Executive Committee and the NFLPA leadership, both of whom devoted nearly a year to detailed, good faith negotiations to reach this comprehensive, transformative agreement.”
The deal takes effect immediately and includes some changes to the 2020 season.
Teams will now play in an expanded postseason format, going from 12 teams to 14 teams in the playoffs. Additionally, the NFL schedule will increase from 16 regular-season games to 17, perhaps as soon as 2021. And with that adjustment comes a shorter preseason — three exhibition games instead of four.
Among other changes, players are set to receive a larger share of NFL revenue under the salary cap, regular-season rosters are expanded from 53 to 55, and padded practices during training camp will drop from 28 to 16, according to NFL.com.
Meanwhile, the ratified CBA opens the door for the NFL to address more business-related matters, including the utilization of franchise/transition tags and the start of the new league calendar year on Wednesday, March 18.
According to NFL Network, the NFL Management Council informed teams Sunday morning that the new salary cap is set at $198.2 million per team in 2020.
An open window of negotiations ahead of free agency is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Central on Monday. During this period, teams are allowed to reach out to certified agents of players set to become unrestricted free agents at 3 p.m. Wednesday. Any agreed-upon contract can’t be executed until the start of the league’s new calendar year.
But whether there will actually be a free-agency period in coming days remains to be seen.
The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak has frozen the sports world in the past week, leading Major League Baseball to delay the start of its season by two weeks, the NHL to pause its season and the NCAA to outright cancel its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
The NFL also canceled its annual owner’s meeting, which had been scheduled for March 29-April 1 in Palm Beach, Florida, and prohibited teams from conducting pre-draft workouts and pre-draft visits ahead of the NFL Draft, which is slated for April 23-25 in Las Vegas.
The Chiefs are among numerous NFL teams that have pulled their coaching staffs and scouts off the road, barring them from making visits to schools’ and players’ pro days, at least for now.
