Posted by Ryan Wilson

Days before the players agreed to the new collective bargaining agreement, but after the owners had already voted to ratify their version of it, NFL attorney Jeff Pash told the New York Daily News that the league not only plans to institute random blood testing for human growth hormone during the 2011 season, but that the NFLPA fully supports it.

"We expect that we will have testing for HGH," Pash said on July 21. "I think that both sides believe that's important for the integrity of the game and that we should continue to be leaders here. I think that's a view that's strongly held by the players as it by us. "

On Tuesday, Judy Battista of the New York Times reported that "The NFL, whose new collective bargaining agreement is expected to be completed and ratified by Thursday, could begin blood testing for human growth hormone as soon as September, according to a person briefed on the negotiations who was not authorized to speak publicly, making it the first major North American sports league to conduct such testing on its top players with the union’s consent."

The potential bump in the road? Assuming that the new CBA will be completed and ratified by Thursday. CBSSports.com's Will Brinson wrote earlier Wednesday that some players "doubt" a CBA will be ratified in time, although CBSSports.com's Mike Freeman hears that there's nothing to worry about and everything is still on track.

The NFLPA has long opposed testing, citing concerns about reliability and calling the process "invasive," but Battista writes that both NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell "have long seen a need for growth hormone testing and want to cast the NFL as a leader in combating drugs in major sports. … Details to be worked out include how many players will be tested for performance-enhancing drugs and how they would be randomly selected when drug testing resumes. There was no drug testing of any kind conducted during the lockout."

In July, Pash suggested that while there were some issues that needed to be ironed out, "we would hope that [testing] could be ramped up by the start of the season." On Tuesday, he sounded similarly encouraged, even if the testing is pushed back a few weeks. “I think both sides have a commitment to being leaders in this area and to having the best possible program and they recognize that having testing for growth hormone is part of having the best program."

NFLPA spokesman George Atallah, however, reiterated that “The players have not agreed to any comprehensive drug testing proposal,” although Freeman notes Wednesday that "One of the things the two sides have been doing is working on HGH testing. Once that is wrapped up the CBA will be finalized."

And then, hopefully, we won't have to hear the words "lockout" and "collective bargaining agreement" for at least a decade.

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

Even if you were sweating the question of whether the NFL and the NFLPA would get a new CBA complete before the start of the regular season, the TV executives apparently weren’t.

They just figured there was too much money to lose for the NFL not to play games and have them shown on TV.

“There’s so many benefits to so many people that I was always relatively confident they’d get the deal done,” Sean McManus, the chairman of CBS Sports, told the New York Post.

So, the fact that a deal actually WAS consummated is a pretty good feeling for CBS, NBC, ESPN and DirecTV (especially since the NFL was supposed to have received money from the latter anyway, even if there was no season (although we never did get a ruling from Judge David Doty in how much of that cash the owners would have to give the owners after bargaining with the networks in what amounted to lockout insurance).

CNBC reporter Darren Rovell explains why football is so important to the networks and why the end of the lockout is such a big boost.

“The NFL is the most popular sport in the history of sport,” CNBC sports business reporter Darren Rovell said. “No sport at any time has been as popular as the NFL is now based on the percentage of people who watch in this country and the amount of time people spend consuming just the NFL.”

And also this: “Sports is the only thing on television that is not TIVO-able meaning it’s either live or it’s garbage,” Rovell said. “That’s really the value of sports and that’s what makes the advertising so valuable. Whether you go to the bathroom or not for the most part the ads are going to be on because you are watching live. … We’ve seen a tremendous amount of TV rights deal with sports go 10, 12, 14 years because no matter how we consume we know it’s going to be consumed live. So, no matter how the networks sell it, it is going to be of greater value.”

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

Although it comes as absolutely no surprise, the NFLPA, once again, has voted to recertify as a union, according to NFL.com’s Albert Breer.

After decertifying just before the players were locked out, there was some talk at the time that perhaps the NFLPA would be better suited NOT to recertify, meaning it couldn’t collectively bargain with the owners, meaning the owners  wouldn’t be exempt from anti-trust laws, meaning the possibilities of beginning the season under those terms was an impossibility.

But after the owners and players agreed on a new CBA, 50 percent plus one of the players had to vote in favor of restarting the union. That way, when the two sides meet today to complete the negotiations that only can be accomplished by collectively bargaining, the owners would be talking with a real-life union.

If the players wouldn’t have voted to recertify, the season likely would have been over before it had begun. Instead, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith has been making the rounds at NFL camps this week explaining why and pushing for the players to vote yay on recertifying.

Now, they have, and the two sides are that much closer to completing the entire deal and giving fans 10 years of labor peace.

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

There was plenty of talk early in the lockout about how NFL commissioner Roger Goodell had reduced his annual salary to $1 and how NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith took it a step further by slashing his take to zero.

While neither guy has to worry about money -- they’ve got plenty of it in their respective bank accounts; Goodell’s salary is around $10 million, while Smith pulls in a hefty $1.8 million per year -- the symbolic move, though a blatant PR move, was probably the right one.

And like many of the teams who are returning money to the employees who had their pay reduced during the work stoppage, Goodell and Smith also will have their salary -- and the back pay that comes with it -- reinstated.

That’s according to the Biz of Football, which reports that Goodell will get $3.7 million returned to him while Smith will pocket the $670,000 that was owed to him.

As for bonuses for the two who helped broker a new CBA and 10 years of labor peace?

According to the story, that’s a distinct possibility.

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

UPDATE (5:00 p.m. ET): The 2011 NFL Calendar is officially official. So you should officially click that link and find out what's official.

CBSSports.com has obtained the letter sent to player-agents by the NFLPA that lays out the schedule for the next few days.

Tuesday, July 26 -- Team facilities will be open for voluntary training, conditioning and classroom instruction.

Teams can sign their drafted players, as well as undrafted free agents.

The trading of players can begin.

Teams can negotiate, but cannot sign or give offers sheets to their own UFAs, RFAs and franchise players.

Wednesday, July 27 -- Broncos, Cardinals, Cowboys, Chargers, Eagles, Jaguars, Patriots, Raiders, Ravens and Seahawks open training camp

Thursday, July 28 -- Beginning at 4 p.m. ET, teams can begin to waive or terminate players.

49ers, Bengals, Buccaneers, Chiefs, Dolphins, Falcons, Lions, Redskins, Saints and Steelers open training camp.

Friday, July 29 -- Unrestricted free agency begins July 29 at 6 p.m. and clubs can begin signing players -- their own or other teams’ players. No payment can be made to players until a CBA is signed.

Bears, Bills, Browns, Colts, Giants, Packers, Panthers, Rams, Titans and Vikings open training camp.

Saturday, July 30 -- Jets and Texans open training camp.

Thursday, Aug 4 -- The league year can begin no later than today.

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Posted by Eye on Football Staff

The lockout, kids. The 32 NFLPA reps voted unanimously to approve the CBA on Monday afternoon. That gives us a decade (!) of labor peace in the NFL. Life is good.



Now the chaos begins. Fortunately, we're here to provide you with live updates throughout the day/night/week (?!?!). So bookmark our NFL Lockout: Live Updates page and come back early and often.



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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

It was a late night and an early morning for the negotiators for the NFL and the NFLPA, but according to CBSSports.com's Mike Freeman and NFL.com’s Albert Breer, it was a successful bargaining session. And, hopefully, the final negotiation meeting for the next 10 years or so.

Because it sounds as if the two sides have agreed to the basic terms of a new CBA, even though Breer writes that there are still small points to review before it’s truly done.

In his Daily Shoutout, Freeman writes that the NFLPA executive committee is expected to meet at 9 a.m. this morning (though that time might get pushed back). After the committee votes to recommend the CBA, the plaintiffs of the Brady v NFL case will sign off on the deal, and then the player reps will vote to pass it.

As long as 50 percent plus one of the rank-and-file players vote to ratify, the deal will be completed.

At this point, we’re still a little unclear whether team facilities would open Tuesday or Wednesday, and we're still not sure when free agency would begin. But we should begin to know all the answers at some point today.

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Posted by Ryan Wilson

In recent years, HBO's Hard Knocks has served as something of a bridge between the offseason and the regular season. A guilty pleasure that got us through the tediousness of training camps (although we'd now gladly endure such tedium if it mean actual football … but don't worry, it's coming!) and offered us a glimpse behind the curtain.

There was no other show like it on television and for various reasons, there won't be a show like it this preseason, either. Sports Illustrated's Peter King tweets:



Luckily, we won't have time to bemoan the monotony of those few weeks between the start of training camp and the final preseason game because once the lockout ends, the race to the regular season will be frenetic (we're guessing the interpretive dance would look something like this).

That means we won't get to see the Panthers or Patriots or Packers or Texans or Raiders. Or any other team for that matter.

And that's okay. At this point we'll just settle for football.

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