Players Expected To Vote On Friday

UPDATE 2: According to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, the NFLPA will not likely vote on the proposal today. One reason is that members of the NFLPA executive committe are attending the funeral of the late wife of Robert Kraft. Mortensen also believes that this will likely drag over the weekend and that without a vote of yes, teams will not open their doors tomorrow as reported yesterday by the NFL. Earlier, 49’er player rep, Takeo Spikes said that the players are not bound by the NFL’s time schedule and will not vote or agree to a new deal until they get what they consider to be a fair deal…implying that currently it is not a fair deal. The NFLPA is also seeking an opt out clause in year 7 of the deal.

UPDATE 1: Well that didn’t take long. We have our first update of the day. Not a big one but an update nonetheless. Appearing on ESPN a short while ago, Redskin player rep Vonnie Holliday, fomer Miami Dolphin Vonnie Holliday, said there is no reason that the lockout can’t be lifted without a CBA in place. He said that the league “bamboozled” the players and that they lied to the players. Holliday also said that the owners have lied to the fans as well.

Yesterday was crazy. And not in a good way. First there was the breaking news that the lockout was over. Then there was the deception ridden Emails from the players side decrying the NFL press conference saying the lockout was over.

Today, the players are expected to vote on that same proposal and it appears that as it stands now, some of the team player reps will vote no. Considering that they are tunnel of information to each team, this could be a bad day.

It’s hard to understand what exactly went wrong last night, but it’s very clear that the players are not happy and believe that they have been lied to. They believe that the owners are trying to put pressure on them to do a deal that they don’t want to do.

I find this a bit surprising as I have stated quite often, they knew the owners were going to vote on this and they themselves were supposed to vote on this Wednesday…so why are they surprised? Perhaps it was because of the jovial nature of the leagues announcement.

I still maintain this is more of a case of the players wanting to stand and say “They accepted our proposal” as opposed to “we accepted theirs” or to be more precise, the NFL saying “they accepted our proposal”. Does it really matter in the overall commitment of both sides? No. Not at all.

So focus will turn once again to the players today as they try and iron out what they call the 3 to 5 remaining issues that have not been dealt with. While none appear to be a hurdle in getting a deal done, the fact that the league has made bold announcements despite the lack of player acceptance can blow this up entirely.

Does anyone truly believe that the players wouldn’t simply vote “no” out of spite? Of course they just might and the owners would likely do the same if the shoe were on the other foot. If the players do approve the deal, the league year will start on Wednesday and players will join their teammates starting tomorrow.

If that happens, then next week will be even crazier than it was last night…but in a good way.

Stick with Phinphanatic.com throughout the day as we keep you updated on all the “rumors”, “facts”, and “latest” as this critical day unfolds.