NFL gets nod for significant changes
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NEW YORK • National Football League (NFL) players have approved a new 10-year labour deal that will include the first major expansion to the season in more than four decades.
A narrow majority of the US league's roughly 2,000 players signed off on the deal, paving the way for the addition of a 17th regular-season game, an expanded play-off format, more limited training camps and a relaxation of rules governing the use of marijuana.
The passage of the current contract comes just days before the end of the league's business year tomorrow.
Teams will now have just hours to assign franchise tags on players on their rosters and to start bidding for free agents, which this year includes stars like quarterbacks Tom Brady and Philip Rivers.
Given the limitations on travel because of the risk of spreading the coronavirus, teams will have to evaluate players by telephone or video conference. This includes college players who teams want to speak with before the draft, which is set to begin on April 23.
The league and union may vote to delay the start of the new league year to give teams more time to prepare.
The vote, in which only a simple majority was needed to ratify the contract, comes after a tumultuous period for the NFL Players Association, during which many of the league's biggest stars publicly pushed back because of the extra games and what they viewed as insufficient concessions by owners.
The margin of passage, 60 votes, or 3 per cent, reflected the level of discontent with key elements of the deal, most notably the expansion of the regular season.
To induce broadcasters to pay billions of dollars more for the right to show NFL games, the owners persuaded the players to play a 17th game, the first expansion of the regular season since the league went to 16 games in 1978, and to increase the number of teams who qualify for the play-offs to 14 from 12.
Those changes, and a reduction in pre-season games to offset them, could take effect as soon as the 2020-21 season, due to start on Sept 10.
NYTIMES
