Players now holding up NFL labor deal

ATLANTA -- NFL general managers and other key front-office executives were briefed Friday on the specifics of the league's newly approved collective-bargaining agreement. But even after owners voted overwhelmingly for the new agreement, the players still had not given their go-ahead to the proposed 10-year deal.

So Friday's seminar was missing just one ingredient: clarity on just when the lockout, which has lasted more than four months, will end.

"We're just waiting, like everybody else," Broncos vice president of football operations John Elway, the Hall of Fame former quarterback, said after the nearly four-hour seminar. "This is the time of year that gets you excited."

But the start of free agency and the opening of training camps still are on hold. The NFL initially planned to open its doors Saturday, but only if players approved the labor deal by sometime Friday.

NFLPA president Kevin Mawae said in a statement released late Friday morning that the players still were "discussing the most recent written proposal with the NFL" but would not be releasing any further statements Friday out of "respect for the Kraft family while they mourn the loss of Myra Kraft," the wife of Patriots owner Robert Kraft. She died Wednesday of complications from cancer, and her funeral was held Friday in Newton, Mass.

There was additional communication between lawyers for both sides Friday, according to people familiar with the labor talks. And though some players criticized the owners' proposed deal Thursday, the rhetoric subsided markedly. According to people from both sides, there continued to be a sense that a deal ultimately will happen. The only uncertainty was the timing.

"The nature of our business is there's always surprises and you have to be flexible," Panthers general manager Marty Hurney said. "I think that applies right now more than any."

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Hurney and other GMs said the framework of the agreement largely resembles the system that has been in place since 1993, when the league adopted its current free-agency and salary-cap system. Until this year, the system had led to uninterrupted labor peace. But the league already has canceled the Aug. 7 Hall of Fame preseason game between the Bears and Rams.

The NFL instructed teams to hold off on opening any facilities until the NFLPA's executive committee votes on the CBA. Teams were to open their doors Saturday and allow veteran players to return, permit negotiations with undrafted free agents and begin a four-day window to re-sign their own free agents. Unrestricted free agency was to start Wednesday, the same day training camps would open.

Because the players haven't voted, the timetable has been pushed back. The NFL likely will implement a similar timetable if and when an agreement is reached.

Most general managers seemed anxious to begin the process, but Elway had a slightly different approach to the work stoppage:

"For me, being in my first year and not knowing exactly what that is . . . I guess I'm not as impatient as everybody else."