NFL owners and players cleared a major hurdle during labor talks on Thursday, reportedly agreeing on a structure for a rookie wage system to be included in a new collective bargaining agreement.
The plan is to give owners the option to extend a rookie contract for a fifth year depending how the player performs in his first few years in the league, ESPN reported on Thursday.
The two sides in the NFL lockout engaged in another round of lengthy talks on Thursday, with both groups beefing up their bargaining teams in the US$9 billion wrangle.
Half a dozen current and former players joined NFL Players Association chief DeMaurice Smith at the table on Thursday.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was backed by eight of the 10 members of the owners’ labor committee, including Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, John Mara of the Giants, Green Bay Packers chief executive Mark Murphy and San Diego Chargers owner Dean Spanos.
Talks have been going on this week since Monday and both sides have said they believe progress has been made.
Also NFL stars Peyton Manning was joined by his fellow quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Drew Brees, in issuing a statement this week saying the time has come to “wrap up negotiations.”
“We believe the overall proposal made by the players is fair for both sides and it is time to get this deal done,” they said. “This is the time of year we as players turn our attention to the game on the field. We hope the owners feel the same way.”
The NFL issued a statement saying: “We share the view that now is the time to reach an agreement so we can all get back to football and a full 2011 season. We are working hard with the players’ negotiating team every day to complete an agreement as soon as possible.”
Billionaire team owners and multi-millionaire players have been unable to decide how to divide US$9.3 billion in annual revenues, sparking the first NFL shutdown since 1987 and jeopardizing September’s scheduled start of the season.
The two sides were expected to meet again yesterday.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
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