The Lockout And You

Wow, we almost didn't have pro-football this year. Thankfully, both sides swallowed their pride and saved the 2011 season, as well as their bank accounts. Here is what you need to know going forward. by Alex Onushco 

Peyton Hills, shortly after hearing the news. 

After 4 ½ months of darkness, it seems the NFL gods have finally blessed us with a light at the end of the tunnel. As of Monday afternoon, both the NFL and the NFLPA have agreed on a new collective bargaining agreement. You can practically hear the collective sigh of relief from football fans across the country.

While a few of the details of the new CBA aren’t worth explaining, some do warrant some attention. For starters, despite the owners’ best efforts, there will not be an 18-game regular season for the foreseeable future. This bodes well for player safety-as a 16-game season puts enough of a toll on their body-but may leave some fans disappointed.

The salary cap will return this season after teams went financially rogue in 2010. The maximum team salary in 2009, the last capped year, was approximately $128 million, making the floor roughly $107 million. The cap dropped to $120 million in the new CBA, but the floor rose from 84 percent of the maximum salary to 89 percent. A higher floor will largely affect teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Cincinnati Bengals, who have been exceptionally frugal with their spending in recent seasons.

But perhaps the most notable feature of this new CBA is its expiration date: 2021. Fans can now look forward to a decade of football free of pesky lockouts.  

Cam Newton, 2011 First Overall Pick. 

As with any new CBA, concessions had to be made on both sides. As a result, the deal had its share of winners and losers (although when you are splitting $9 billion, there shouldn’t be any losers). The veterans will see their minimum salaries increase, but in the end, the owners came out with the biggest smiles on their faces because (not surprisingly) they stand to make more money with a 2011 season instead of a lockout. Rookies seemed to draw the shortest straw. A new wage scale eliminates the chances of a Sam Bradford-esque $78 million contract. Thanks to the new agreement, players such as Cam Newton can expect to earn only half of that amount in his rookie deal.

OK, so the lockout is over. What happens now?  A whole lot. In a normal offseason, trades and free agent signings would have been underway for months by now. But thanks to the lockout, teams have to cram six months-worth of transactions into a few short weeks. Expect to hear a lot of transactions in the coming days, everything from cuts (Todd Heap) to free agent signings (Nnamdi Asomugha) to undrafted players signing rookie deals (Terrelle Pryor assuming he doesn’t enter the supplemental draft) to trades (Donovan McNabb).  

If that wasn’t enough, teams are also gearing up for training camp. As early as tomorrow, teams such as the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles plan on opening their doors to start camp. 

But a rushed offseason is better than no offseason. As the lockout extended further into summer, it seemed more and more likely that games would be cancelled and that fans everywhere would be left with nothing to do on Sundays. Thankfully, a deal was struck in the final hour, saving Sundays for the next decade. Now, fans need only sit back and relax as they wait for the start of the season.

So, are you ready for some football? I know I am.