Follow the Yellow Brick Road

As reports are flowing in every minute, it looks like the lockout could be all but done as early as Thursday after the owners meeting. Of course, one of the main obstacles it appears is the settlement of the player’s lawsuit.

From some of the reports, the players involved in the suit want to follow the path created by the great Reggie White, permanent exemption from being franchise tagged. Could 2000 players going back to work be held up by 4 players (Brees, Peyton Manning, Logan Mankins and Vincent Jackson) looking for their own personal benefit?

Some updates from tonight via Twitter:

"@AlbertBreer –After dinner, I’m told the lawyers & staff will be dotting i’s, crossing t’s and refining a document to present to the players tomorrow. Lawyers’ work is largely done. Document goes to players tomorrow to be reviewed, voted on.@JasonLaCanforaThere isn’t anything else to do from here. They hope to be able to do so on Wednesday and have player reps vote to recommend it to the Brady plaintiffs for a possible settlement, but those plaintiffs have the ability to seek damages, etc, before signing off."

So as long as they can get the majority of the “language” taken care of tonight it looks like the players vote could happen tomorrow. For the NFLPA* (they’ll likely recertify soon) to pass the new CBA agreement they would need at least 50% +1 of the players to approve the deal.

Next, the owners (plus an executive) are planning to meet on Thursday to do their own voting on the CBA. For the lockout to be lifted, 75% or 24/32 have to approve the proposed deal before we can start talking football again.  Let’s hope a group of owners don’t suddenly find a way to block all this progress so late in the game.

It looks like it will be a wild ride over the next few weeks once we have an agreement in place with free agency, camp reporting and preseason starting. I’m looking forward to the player movements and the shaping of the 2011 New York Giants roster.