NFL PR man Greg Aiello sent out a tweet this morning stating that two Congressmen announced the NFL and NFLPA had come to some kind of agreement on HGH testing. There have been reports it could start as soon as next week, but the NFLPA apparently is disputing that to some extent.

There are a couple of issues with HGH testing that both sides have had to deal with as they develop the framework for testing. One of the more popular arguments we hear is "invasion of privacy" due to the use of a blood test instead of a urine test. While the privacy issue does exist, I think the bigger concern is with the testing itself. There have been some question marks raised with regards to the reliability of the current testing protocol.

The good news (at least for those who want testing started soon) is that scientists from around the world have reportedly endorsed the test as being reliable and safe. Noted sports injury expert Will Carroll is putting together an article on the potential testing. I'll post a link as soon as it is available.

In the meantime, if HGH testing is developed in the coming weeks, do you think we'll see some early suspensions? One issue with the test is that it apparently only detects synthetic growth hormone within 24-48 hours of use. While that is a weakness, if you have random testing I would think you could potentially overcome those concerns.

Fooch's Note: This all came down just after nocal's cornerbacks post went up, so head over there for some actual football discussion.

136 days ago the NFL Lockout began. Today it is more or less over. There are some procedural issues including collecting the player votes and reforming the NFLPA, but the NFLPA executive committee and player representatives voted to ratify a CBA that will provide labor peace through 2020. DeMaurice Smith is holding a press conference right now and will conduct a joint press conference in just a little bit with Roger Goodell as a sign of unity between the players and owners.

It's been a long and tumultuous period over the last 4+ months and we've seen the fractured support even amongst all of us here at Niners Nation. The frustration of it all was reaching a tipping point late last week but after months of angst, we finally have a CBA and football is finally back. Training camp will get going later this week as will a host of NFL transactions. We'll have plenty of coverage in what will be an insane stretch of time, but for now, let's just leave it with Kool & The Gang.

Fooch's Note: Site decorum is off for this post.

After a weekend of budding optimism, fans are hoping today will prove decisive in the NFL Lockout and conceivably get us back into football by the middle to end of the week. In spite of media optimism over the weekend, this labor dispute has shown things can change on a dime. Things seem to be reaching a level of inevitability, but until we get the press conference and all the bells and whistles I'll remain a little skeptical, or at least cautious.

If things do get worked out soon, there appears to be a tentative schedule that would actually give both sides a chance to finalize negotiations into tomorrow and still stay on schedule. ESPN put together a possible schedule of events this week but there was a different possible schedule sent out by Drew Brees to his teammates. The ESPN schedule is as follows:

Monday: NFLPA Executive Committee votes whether to recommend approval of owner-approved CBA. Then, the 32 player reps vote whether to recommend approval of the CBA.

Wednesday: Players from some teams begin reporting to facilities and vote whether to recertify the NFLPA as a union and accept the proposed CBA. If the NFLPA has gotten the necessary votes, teams can also start contract talks with their own players, including free agents and draft choices.

Thursday or Friday: The remaining players report and vote whether to approve recertification and the CBA. If the NFLPA then receives the necessary 50-percent-plus-one-vote majority in approval, then it recertifies as a union.

Saturday: Free agency starts and teams can officially sign players.

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Yesterday afternoon media reports (ESPN - NFL) indicated an uptick in optimism as the owners and players apparently made significant progress in the issues surrounding reformation of the union, the opportunity to opt out of the deal, and several other issues. It's also worth noting that Vincent Jackson (or his handlers or whatever) has dropped the demand for some kind of compensation.

Albert Breer tweeted last night that the NFLPA made arrangements for members of the Executive Committee to come to Washington, DC on Monday. This would seem to signify a vote could come early in the week as many of them had left town after the breakdown at the end of this week. Both sides had been working on the issues via phone and email, which would seem to indicate bringing the players back to town is a big step. Reports are going so far as to say Roger Goodell might head to DC on Monday to join in any press conference if a vote goes down.

I was a bit skeptical when Adam Schefter tweeted "Welcome back, football" and Chris Mortensen tweeted "I'm talking football!!!!" Until the vote happens and this lockout is ended, it struck me as a bit over the top to tweet that out. On the other hand, one could view that as an even more optimistic sign things are close to finished. At this point I'd personally prefer to stick somewhere in the middle and avoid another instance of both sides pulling the football out of the way just as we're about to kick it.

It's worth noting that Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith have apparently remained in contact this weekend in spite of the issues that went down with the non-vote by the players. Both men have taken a lot of crap over the last few months, but if they're able to get a deal hammered out without missing much more than just the Hall of Fame Game, they deserve some credit. It would have been nice if they had gotten their collective acts together back in March or April, but that's often the way these sort of things happen. A deal in the next few days would go a long way towards getting them some forgiveness.

The NFL lockout enters the weekend with the all sorts of information coming and going. A perfect example of the conflicting information is the report of an NFLPA email going out to members indicating plans to meet back up on Monday. That was followed by a clarification letter from DeMaurice Smith and the Executive Committee indicating plans to actually continue working through the weekend. This all comes as misinformation is flying left and right. Word has it that one point players were being referred to an illegitimate website posing as a way to help players vote to reconstitute a union (nflvr.com).

It's all just a whole lot of insanity at this point. We might have some new information today, or we might end up sitting here through the weekend wondering what is going on. We've got smileyman putting together information on the proposed CBA, but for just general labor news, feel free to use this as an open thread.

At this point, I'd argue this is the most appropriate response to the labor coverage these last few days:

A couple of quick things to clear up about the madness that was yesterday (almost as crazy as the Harbaughcalypse). Initially news broke that the NFLPA reps had been sent an email stating that no work was going to be done over the weekend and they wouldn't meet again until Monday. This got many fans riled up, until clarification was issued saying that the players and the owners are still meeting and will continue to meet through the weekend.

According to Jason LaConfora of the NFL Network

Clearing up some stuff from earlier - was a false report about the nature of an alleged email from the NFLPA to player reps that quickly Spread to the point where reps and players believed it to be true, including several I spoke to. Turned out to be erroneous and the NFLPA...In fact sent out nothing. PA got word to players it was not true and there is no conference call or meeting set for Monday. George Atallah of the NFLPA told me "there is no timetable" for any conference or vote and lawyers continue to work out remaining issues

As Chris Mortensen pointed out on his Twitter feed:

There's never been a 10-year agreement that I can remember. And, again, no loss of NFL games since 1987. 

The lesson to be learned from this? Just like with the whole Harbaugh thing take everything you read and see with several grains of salt and be patient with the process. There's been incredibly significant progress on this thing, and the revenue split has been settled, which is by far the most serious thing left. The rest of this stuff is incidental. I've bounced back from my pessimism of earlier in the summer and I fully expect that at most we'll miss 1 pre-season game and no regular season games will be lost. 

Chris Mortensen sent out a 25 page pdf document summarizing the document that the owners voted on. I know there's been a huge amount of information sent out, but I think this information is both useful and new. 

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While the NFLPA is busy figuring out the owners' proposal and whether they are going to vote on it, the NFL Management Council conducted a labor seminar Friday morning in Atlanta. This was planned in advance of the meeting and included up to four executives from each NFL franchise. Trent Baalke is definitely in attendance for the 49ers as I saw some footage of him walking around in the hotel in Atlanta.

The executives were briefed on the new rules in the owner-approved CBA, which cover everything from economics to roster requirements to practice rules. The rules have not been ratified by the players and a few of them seem to be open to enough interpretation and negotiation as to create some consternation on both sides.

For example, during the regular season teams will only be able to practice in pads one day a week. Additionally, during the final five weeks of the regular season teams can only practice in pads one day a week during three of those weeks. The biggest question mark right now is whether shells count as a padded practice or not. Shells involve wearing the underpads and helmets but not the full gear. In the link above Brian Billick raises the question of whether padded practice means no shells, no helmets, or what exactly. At around the 2:30 mark, Billick gives a solid rundown of a possible practice schedule over the course of season in previous years.

I suppose the argument can be made that fewer padded practices and fewer OTAs will mean fewer injuries. The problem of course is what kind of change we'll see related to in-game hits. Changes in practice rules would seem to help more with preventing more moderate injuries that build up over the course of season. That would have less effect on more "catastrophic" injuries whether it be concussions, torn ligaments, etc.

Along those lines, One issue that appears to still be on the table is related to discipline. There haven't been specifics but it sounds like the same concern from the past exists in terms of players wanting some kind of say as opposed to Der Kommissar laying down the hammer with impunity. That applies to the off the field conduct policy, but one has to wonder the impact on Goodell making changes to fines and suspensions as they relate to big hits.

Aside from levying more and more fines or turning this into flag football, are there ways to decrease the injuries? One could argue it's simply a matter of changing the culture, which takes time and these fines could help in that sense. On the other hand, is the game so inherently violent that things like concussions will always be a problem?

Yesterday afternoon things got a bit hectic as the NFL owners voted to ratify a collective bargaining agreement followed by the players questioning the propriety of the agreement and the vote. There is a lot of work to be done in regards to a final global settlement, but in looking over the terms voted on by the owners, much of the deal is actually done. To be more clear, the terms and working conditions affecting the economics of the game over the next ten years are mostly done.

As it currently stands, the two sides are dealing with issues like recertification and a global settlement of the various accompanying lawsuits. There are other issues like drug testing that owners want to deal with after reformation of the union, which would allow time for collective bargaining. This is one of the big issues related to the whole reformation issue because of concerns over how much time there will be to negotiate these new terms before submitting the deal to the court.

Shortly after the NFL owners voted on and announced ratification of the deal, the NFL PR department sent out a press release breaking down the terms of the deal. While some of these might be subject to a bit of change, I think a lot of it won't change since it deals more with the direct economics that were hammered out last week for the most part. However, for now after the jump you can check out owner-approved details awaiting player approval.

Whether there are changes or not to these details, we'll work to breakdown the many aspects of the new CBA.

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