Players Fail To Vote, Could Be Two More Weeks

According to Chester Pitts the player rep for the Seattle Seahawks, a new labor deal may not come for another two weeks.  If that is the case then both sides can forget about the 200 million dollars they would make off the Hall of Fame game as it will be cancelled…and quite possibly a few more as not all pre-season games are played on Sundays.  Still at the heart of the labor mess is the players desire to receive 320 million in lost benefits from the uncapped 2010 season.

Under the final year of the previous CBA, each team was not required to spend a predetermined amount of money as there was no cap and therefore no floor.  Some teams decided to spend very cautiously.  The Tampa Bay Buc’s spent just under 60 million while the Dallas Cowboys spent 136.  Now, the players want what they claim to have lost, back.  There claim is 10 million per team.

In addition, it is still being widely reported that both Vincent Jackson, despite his denial, and Logan Mankins are seeking 10 million dollars each for money lost last year when they held out.  Both felt they should have been free agents last season and the 10 mill is what they estimate they would have made on the open market.  If of course the rumors that simply won’t die are in fact true.

The owners are meeting in Atlanta tomorrow and were supposed to vote on the CBA proposal, it was reported earlier on ESPN that the owners were not happy that the players failed to vote on the proposal.  The players, through their reps, have said that one day was simply not enough time to fully go over the entire new agreement and that a vote could still be taken at any time tomorrow.  Kevin Mawae who is one of the plaintiffs in the case said earlier that the players are not bound by a July 21st deadline and will not make any decisions until they are satisfied with the agreement.

For fans, this is another bump in a 4 month road that simply doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.  For now, we can only hope that the players take a vote, Mankins and Jackson drop their demands, and the powers that be in the players negotiating group realize that what they didn’t get last year was because they agreed to it in the last CBA.  It’s too late to go back.  Still, it’s not out of the question that owners will cave at some point and give them exactly what they want.

If the players are steadfast in their desire to get that money and will not do a deal without it and the owners are set to not give in, this whole thing could blow up and ruin a perfect opportunity to get back on the field and make money.  For both sides.