Is the long, national nightmare finally over?
Stop us if you have heard this before, but the NFL could be on the cusp of labor peace — and a 2011 season played in its regularly scheduled entirety.
The two sides took a huge step yesterday toward a settlement that would end the four-month-old lockout by agreeing on the framework of a new wage scale for rookies — an issue considered the last major stumbling block toward a new collective bargaining agreement.
The handshake on rookie salaries, confirmed by an industry source, was achieved late yesterday during the second day this week of negotiations in Midtown Manhattan between NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, union chief DeMaurice Smith and other key figures in the talks.
As a result, people on both sides are as optimistic as possible that a settlement to the players’ antitrust lawsuit, which would result in a new CBA, could be struck as soon as today, although insiders said a resolution this weekend or early next week is more likely.
And has been the case throughout this roller-coaster ordeal that has become the longest work stoppage in league history, it all could fall apart and go back to square one at any moment.
But sources told The Post the finish line finally appears in sight now that the owners were willing to let first-round picks make more money in the fifth year of their contracts and the players were willing to make rookies wait longer to renegotiate their deals.
“It’s closer than it’s been in a while, but we’re not there just yet,” a union source said last night.
The only remaining issues are considered minor, with most of them regarding rules for free agency, workman’s compensation and what stipulations the NFL Players Association will operate under once it recertifies.
The sides already have worked out the overriding issue — how to divide annual league revenues that reached $9.3 billion last year. The union has agreed to reduce its cut to 48 percent (down from 53 percent) in part because the owners will no longer take $1 billion off the top and have promised to double league revenues by 2016.
The salary cap would return, and it reportedly would be $123 million per team. That would be a decrease from $128 million per team in 2009, the last year of the cap, but the owners would have to commit as much as 93 percent of that figure in cash for salaries in the form of a salary “floor” — up dramatically from roughly 86 percent under the previous CBA.
If a deal is worked out by this weekend, what is sure to be a frenzied free-agency period likely would start sometime late next week and last 7-10 days before training camps opened. The league, however, has said free agency will not begin until after a formal agreement is signed and in stone.
An agreement by today or this weekend certainly would make Colts owner Jim Irsay look smart. Irsay predicted to The Post at last month’s owners meetings in Chicago that the sides would reach a deal by July 15 to save the entire regular season as currently scheduled.
A deal this weekend also might allow the league to play the Hall of Fame Game between the Rams and Bears (scheduled for Aug. 7), though it’s still looking likely that exhibition opener will get scratched and only the induction ceremony would be held.
