The NFL Lockout is, barring a wild, unexpected NFL Players Union negative vote today, over. This blogger can only say “Yeah!” But really, the idea of the NFL not playing football in 2011, with so much economic value and so many needing jobs and revenue, was just plain unthinkable. Now, it’s almost over.
Almost.
The NFL Lockout will be officially over when the NFL Players Association take the “Error 404: Football Not Found” page off the organization’s website. For now, from the NFLPA’s perspective, the last statement posted on their website was this one by NFLPA President Kevin Mawae on July 22nd:
Player leadership is discussing the most recent written proposal with the NFL, which includes a settlement agreement, deal terms and the right process for addressing recertification. There will not be any further NFLPA statements today out of respect for the Kraft family while they mourn the loss of Myra Kraft.
So, it’s not really over, yet. The reaction on Twitter isn’t causing it to explode, even as news sites and blogs and TV are causing Google Trends to include “NFL Lockout,” the overall effort is not enough to spill over to Twitter.
Still, there are some interesting tweets. One from Chad Ochocinco started the day:
ochocinco Chad Ochocinco
1st song this morning is Sam Cooke song entitled A Change Gone Come,what u hear 1st will determine how your day will go.I really hope so.
The vote that was to happen by the NFLPA this morning will not occur until this evening. It’s not over until that vote happens.
NFL Week Timeline
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, this is the updated timeline for the week:
Monday: The NFL will announce that teams can go to 90-man rosters and the official free-agent list will be distributed to teams.
Tuesday: Teams can reach agreements with rookies and undrafted free agents beginning at 10 a.m. ET. Teams can reach agreements with all free agents and signed players are allowed to enter team facilities.
Wednesday: Players can begin reporting to training camps 15 days before their first preseason games. According to the proposed timeline, 10 teams would report on Wednesday, 10 more on Thursday and 10 additional teams on Friday. The New York Jets and Houston Texans would be the last two teams to report, on Sunday.
Thursday: Teams can begin to cut players at 4 p.m. ET.
Friday: Teams can begin filing transactions to the league office at 6 p.m. ET.
Aug. 4: Deadline for recertification and ratification of the collective bargaining agreement by the players.
Stay tuned.
Bill Carroll