The voting on the NFL’s proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement has begun

According to ESPN’s Dan Graziano, all members of the NFLPA were eligible to begin voting on the proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement today at 9 AM.

Players will have one week in order to vote for or against accepting the agreement. Specifically, they will have until 11:59 PM EST to cast their vote.

In order to be ratified, a majority of voters must choose to accept the deal. Any player who chooses not to vote will not factor into the decision. So if only 200 players choose to vote, 101 votes would have the proposal pass.

While we would assume the results of voting will not be available before next Friday, former Steelers linebacker James Harrison claimed some players did not vote on the CBA in 2011 because a majority had already been reached.

Voting will be done electronically, so while votes may be known immediately by the independent auditor, it is highly unlikely any results will be made public before Friday, March 13. The main point of contention is in regards to a 17-game season beginning as early as 2021 and the concessions the owners would have to give to the players in return.

News regarding the proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement has been the main talking points around the NFL lately. While there are reports of teams using the franchise tags on players, most clubs are waiting until the certainty of the rules in which they will be operating in 2020 before making things official. There is also the possibility that several dates dealing with the NFL calendar could be adjusted based on the vote. The time period to use the franchise tag expires at 4 PM on March 12 as well with teams unsure if they are allowed to use both a franchise in transition tag or if they will be able to restructure contracts more easily to save cap space for 2020.

With the franchise tag dates already pushed back two days due to the CBA, it’s hard to say if the deadline will be extended. In 2011, the beginning of the league year was pushed back several days on two separate occasions in order for both sides to attempt to reach an agreement. Unfortunately, and agreement did not happen at that time and the players were locked out by the owners.

Luckily, NFL fans are a year removed from any kind of lockout/strike situation as the two sides can come together again next year on a proposed deal. With NFL owners wanting to renew their TV agreements as soon as possible, it is highly unlikely the NFLPA will be starting off with the same offer from the owners for next season.

If anyone is interested in the entire 456-page proposal, it is available below courtesy of NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.