What exactly is in the new NFL CBA?

Lost in the excitement of the fact that football is back and the preseason games are in full swing is the fact there is a new 10-year collective bargaining agreement that is chock full of new and modified rules and provisions. With the second and third stringers seeing a majority of snaps, now is a better time to dig deeper into what exactly is in the new NFL CBA and the type of impact it will have on the NFL labor market as well as the ongoing and future CBA discussions in the NBA, MLB and NHL. The NFL CBA can be found here if you want to follow along at home.

Because the majority of the news reporters already covered the salary cap/revenue sharing deal points that seemed to take up a majority of the NFL lockout coverage, I will focus this discussion on more of the nuanced provisions such as: (1) the prevalence of binding arbitration as way to settle most disputes, including player contract holdouts; (2) new performance enhancing drug (HGH) testing; worker's compensation rules; (3) worker's compensation filing rules; and (4) the Commissioner's power to discipline players for off the field conduct, among others. Up first, we will discuss the rise of alternative dispute resolution, specifically the rise in the use of arbitration and whether it can be used to settle contract holdouts. Stay tuned!

Are you ready for some football?!?!?! For realz!

It's over, it's over. The 136 day lockout is finito! Once again, it holds true that football does not really start until end of July! However, just as I predicted it was one hell of a roller-coaster ride to get to this point, from the Owners' vote last Thursday (gratuitous link due to this very bLawg getting cited) to today, but I do not think it is premature to say that the lockout is over and there should be football in the near future!