Arkush: NFL And Players Still Have A Lot To Agree On
(WSCR) Due to the gag order placed on the negotiating teams for the NFL and the players, the only information coming out to the public has been through reporters.
Because of that fact, there has been plenty of speculation and misinformation reported. So realistically, we don't have a great deal of knowledge about what progress has actually been made.
"Here's what we do know: They do not yet have an agreement on what they're going to do with the money they're going to save from a rookie wage scale, they do not have an agreement on free agency, they do not have an agreement on 48 percent revenue split of all revenue, that people keep saying is all but done and it's really not," Hub Arkush, of Pro Football Weekly and 670 The Score, said on the Danny Mac Show. "The reason the owners plotted this whole thing for three years was to get back a lot more than two percent of their revenue. So they're closer. They've been talking. They've made progress on some of the lesser issues."
It was reported on Monday that July 21 was a target date for the owners and players to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement. According to Arkush, if a deal is going to get done before the season, it will likely happen closer to August 1, when the pressure gets turned up.
LISTEN: Hub Arkush On The Danny Mac Show
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Arkush doesn't seem to think that the two sides are all that close to an agreement, mainly because there are two issues, that aren't getting much public discussion, that haven't been agreed on.
"One is, the NFL Players' Association cannot allow the new agreement to say that it cannot go to federal court," Arkush said. "It's something that the owners are adamant about. They want this thing governed strictly by neutral arbitrators. The only victories the players have ever gotten over the owners have been in court. DeMaurice Smith cannot give that up and nobody is talking about it.
"The other piece is that there has to be a secondary supplemental form of revenue sharing. And again, it hasn't been settled. And nobody is talking about it."
