The Fan Hub

<p>The NFL lockout may end soon or it may not. Who knows? The owners have agreed, but the players haven't and as long as one side hasn't agreed, we really aren't any closer to anything. We're basically where we started. Wait a minute, where did we start?</p>
<p>The current collective bargaining agreement comes from all the way back in 1993 and has been reinstated five times since, most recently in 2006. What we now know is the lockout started in 2008 when the owners opted out of the 2006 agreement, which put the NFL in the position of playing the 2010 season without a bargaining agreement in place for the future. The CBA ended on March 11 and the NFLPA decertified as a union which started an antitrust lawsuit against the NFL led by the players starting an ongoing legal battle under Judge Susan Nelson.</p>
<p>There are two main conflicts between NFL players and owners. NFL owners are claiming the current agreement gives too much to the players who are currently receiving about 60 percent of the NFL's revenues. Owners say that with the current state of the economy ticket and merchandise sales are falling short and hurting their profits, which makes the players' cut unreasonable.</p>
<p>The owners are also pushing for a longer season, stretching the current 16 game season to 18 games. Players have been openly against this from the earliest rumblings of the idea, mostly because football is such a dangerous sport, that an extra two games could cause many more career-ending injuries.</p>
<p>The current rumors surrounding the new CBA also point out negotiations for rookie wages, salary caps, and benefits for NFL retirees.</p>
<p>This is a very basic rundown of why the lockout started, but it's important to remember where we're coming from to understand where we are today. The NFL owners have agreed to end the lockout on a certain set of terms that the players have not agreed to. So in theory the lockout could end this week, but in reality we really haven't come too far. There are two sides in this debate and they haven't agreed yet.</p>