NFL Lockout News: The Never-Ending Game of Chess

Last night, the NFL owners approved a new 10-year labor agreement proposal by a vote of 31-0. This finally, was supposed to signify the end of the lockout. All the players had to do was approve the proposal as well.

Get ready for football everyone… OK not so fast.

The players reportedly aren’t happy with the proposal the owners just handed them, saying its different from what was agreed upon during their recent meetings.

Check. The owners wined and dined the players, and just when their date was coming to a pleasant conclusion, slipped them a mickey.

Now, the players have been backed into a corner and all the pressure is on them to eat the deal they don’t like by Friday, today. The public had been led to believe the two sides were closing in on a consensus deal, so any delay will be perceived as the player’s doing.

Fair or foul (and the players are certainly crying foul) handing the players a loaded document was a brilliant stroke by the owners. They’ve forced the action while making the players seem like the greedy ones, and to top it off, they just executed their first hostage. The August 7 Hall of Fame Game, and unofficial start of the football season, has been cancelled.

Check. In Thursday’s closing hours the players took to Twitter to defend their fading approval rating:

Josh Cribbs, Browns
Listen up Football Fans we the players wish for nothing more than to return to football, but we as players must carefully dicect this proposal before we can put our stamp of approval on it…

Vonnie Holiday, Redskins
Look guys I have no reason to lie! The truth of the matter is we got tricked, duped, led astray, hoodwinked, bamboozled!

Ryan Clark, Steelers
Done talking about football, CBA, & arguing about how much $ I make! I want to play & I want to leave this game better than when I came in!

Gerald McCoy, Buccaneers
Quick thought on lockout. Im glad the owners want to lift the lockout but I hope the players don’t rush it bc they feel pressured. #patience

That’s just a small sampling, but proof overall the players are feeling the heat.

For now we’ll just have to wait and see if they’ve got one more move up their sleeve, and hope that they don’t. A setback now, after supposedly so much progress was made the past three weeks, could severely damage our football season.

The sad thing is,  this was always the only way this was going to end, with a dare the players could never go through with. A bad deal for them is still infinitely better than no deal at all. Checkmate.