Lockout Comes to End for NFL Refs

Replacement Refs with opposing calls
Monday Night in Packers/Seahawks game

After an uproar from coaches, players and fans about the horrible calls of the replacement refs, things reached the highest peak of outrage Monday night when one ref called an obvious interception by the Packers a touchback and another ref signaled the catch as an touchdown for the Seahawks. Well that call might have been the call that got the refs and the league at the table to come up with an agreement.

Merry Early Christmas from the NBA

After a complete breakdown in negotiations 12 days ago, on Day 149 of the lockout the owners and players have reached a tentative agreement after secretly meeting all week.  The details of the deal has not been released as both sides will have to vote on the deal, needing a majority vote (15 out of 29 votes) from the owners and a majority vote from the 430 players in which the union represents.  Before the players are able to vote on the deal they must first drop the anti-trust lawsuit they filed against the NBA in Minnesota and reform the union.  In hopes that the majority wins and the deal is implicated, training camps and free agency will begin on December 9th with the NBA bringing everyone a happy Christmas with games beginning on that day.  The season will jump off with the Boston Celtics taking on the New York Knicks, followed by the Miami Heat taking on the Dallas Mavericks in a NBA Finals rematch, and ending with the LA Lakers taking on last years league MVP Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls.  With the delay in start the players will only play a 66 games season instead of the usual 82 games season.  I don't know about you all but I am one happy individual this morning with the NBA coming back on Christmas Day.  Stay tuned for the details of the deal which will be soon to come.

100 Games Gone

"Both sides are very far apart on virtually all issues." -David Stern

David Stern has cancelled the first 2 weeks, 100 games, of the NBA regular season.  Games scheduled from November 1, 2011 through November 14, 2011 will not take place including exciting games that were taking place during that time frame like the Mavericks/Thunder, Heat/Bulls and Heat/Magic to name a few.

The owners and players are so far apart on issues that need to be solved that the cancellation of games were sure to come.  The main issue is the players wanting 53% of basketball related income.  The owners have offered a 50-50 split of the BRI and have already stated that the only way they would agree to a 53-47 split of the basketball related income is if the 53% was in the owners' favor.  The players received 57% of BRI in the last Collective Bargaining Agreement.

NBA UPDATE

With no agreement between the players and owners the NBA has cancelled the remaining preseason games and if there is no agreement by Monday October 10th there is a chance that the NBA will lose the first 2 weeks of regular season.  To keep up with the lockout check out the following websites:

NBA
Sports Illustrated
ESPN

With the lockout continuing a lot of players have turned to playing overseas with the uncertainty of the NBA season.  Kobe Bryant was offered a major deal but an Italian team and have recently stated that his decision about playing overseas is up in the air.  With the conditions of Kobe's contract with the Italian team, if he decides to sign, he would be able to opt out of his contract and return to the Lakers if the Lockout ends.  Other players have already signed to overseas teams and won't have the luxury of Kobe to return to the states if the lockout ends. Below is a list of players that have already signed contracts overseas:

Toronto Rapters:
Leandro Barbosa/Brazil

Denver Nuggets:
Wilson Chandler/China
Danilo Galinari/Italy
Kenyon Martin/China
Timofey Mozgov/Russia
JR Smith/China

NJ Nets:
Jordon Farmar/Tel Aviv Israel
Sasha Vujacic/Turkey
Deron Williams/Turkey

Boston Celtics:
Nenad Kristic/China

Chicago Bulls:
Brian Scalabrini/Italy

NBA Season In Jeopardy

Commissioner David Stern stated on Thursday that the calendar is not their friend after another unsuccessful meeting between the owners and players on Thursday 9/22/11.  On day 84 (Friday 9/23/11) of the lockout the league announced that training camp as well as 43 preseason games will be cancelled for this upcoming season.  Training camps were scheduled to begin next Monday 10/3/11 with the first preseason game scheduled 6 days later on October 9th.

Both sides were unable to reach a deal on the new Collective Bargaining Agreement that was presented to both sides on Thursday.  In the new deal the owners wanted to cut the current player's percentage of revenue from 57% to below 50%.  Both sides were also unable to agree on the cap salary for each team, in which players wanted it to also remain the same.  The owners and players are scheduled to meet again tomorrow in hopes of coming closer to an agreement with regular season scheduled to tip off in a little over a month on November 1st.

Players are still holding out on signing overseas to see what will happen this week with negotiations.  Durant stated earlier that he would wait until October 1st to make a decision as he has been talking with a Turkish team.  Kobe Bryant has also been offered a deal from a team in Italy.  For fans that had already purchased tickets for the preseason, ticket holders will receive a full refund on all tickets purchased plus 1 percent interest.

FOOTBALL'S BACK

After 132-days of being locked out football owners, players, and fans were happy when the press conference was held today to announce that the owners and players had reached a deal.  Owners unanimously voting to approve the deal on Thursday 7/21/11 and fans were hoping that the players wouldn't be too far from behind him. It was a little disappointing on Thursday once it was announced that the players had not voted on the current deal and would wait until they met today.  Representatives/lawyers worked all weekend for the NFLPA looking over the collective bargaining agreement to make sure that everything panned out and the players wouldn't be compromising anything they wanted.

After working all weekend, NFLPA executive committee and 32 player representatives unanimously approved the 10 year Collective Bargaining Agreement today.  Now that the lockout is over, today teams were able to go to a 90-man roster and the free agent list was distributed to teams.  Tomorrow players are able to return to their teams' facilities and teams can also begin speaking with unrestricted free agents.

The lockout ended and the players are headed right back to work.  10 teams will report Wednesday, 10 teams will report Thursday, 10 teams will report on Friday, and the last 2 remaining teams, the Jets and Texans, will report on Sunday.  Teams will have about 2 weeks of training camp before preseason begins, although the Hall of Fame game between the Bears and Rams has been cancelled due to the ongoing battle during the lockout.

Upon the announcement that the lockout was over, fans took to twitter to express their excitement that football was back.  Now all I can say now is Are you Ready for Some Football?

LET THE SEASON BEGIN...

Lockout after Lockout

With the NFL lockout going well over 100 days and training camps scheduled to begin in almost three weeks, labor negotiations continue and owners, players and fans are hoping that the two sides will come to a decision soon.  Players are continuing to conduct players only workout sessions to stay in shape hoping that they will be back to football soon. The major concern of the negotiations is trying to figure out how to agree on the division of revenues for the $9 billion business.  Besides the division of revenue there are other issues that needs to be panned out since the old collective bargaining agreement expired March 11 and the league is in need of a new CBA.

Following the footsteps of the NFL the NBA has also now entered a lockout.  Beginning their negotiations between the owners and players a week after the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA championship, the two sides were hoping to make a decision before the CBA expired Friday July 1.  With no success in the negotiations the NBA has now entered a player lockout and caused a halt in free agency, as the two sides are further a part in agreeance than the NFL has ever been throughout their negotiations.  David Sterns, NBA commissioner stated "We didn't see any options," after the two sides did not come to any decision on Thursday.  The NBA says that 22 of the 30 teams are unprofitable and the league lost about $300 million dollars last season even though they had a $4.3 billion revenue from last season.  The NBA owners wants to cut the 57% of basketball revenue that the players receive, establish stronger salary cap, reduce guaranteed contracts and lock players into a 10-year Collective Bargaining Agreement.  On the other hand the players offered to cut revenue gain to 54.3% and give up $500 million in revenue for 5 seasons, in which the owners declined their offer. Adam Silver, NBA Deputy Commissioner, stated "NBA wants a system where all 30 teams are capable of being competitive and compete for championships."

It's looking like the NFL may come to a decision really soon, *crosses fingers*, as the commissioner did meet with rookies last week to discuss the business of the league, but the NBA players and owners are looking as far a part as ever.  Some believe that one of the reasons the NBA is so far apart is due to the owners being divided as well.  It's going to be a long journey for the NBA as it seems like the NFL is finally coming to the end of theirs after over 3 months of negotiations.  It would be a really touch year for not only owners and players but also fans who are hoping and praying they do not have to go a year with the NFL or the NBA.  *Stay Tuned*