Proposed collective bargaining agreement clears next hurdle as NFLPA votes to send it to entire membership

While the NFL scouting combine is going on at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium, another event is also taking place in the city — one that could have a major impact on the future of professional football: negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement between the league’s ownership and the NFL Players Association went into another round on Tuesday, and it appears as if there was a major breakthrough after four hours of debate.

As was announced by the NFLPA at 1:41 a.m. on Wednesday, the proposed CBA will now be sent to the full membership for what might be the final vote:

The NFLPA Board of Player Representatives voted to send the proposed collective bargaining agreement to the membership for a vote.

This is obviously an important step in the process, as there is now only one more hurdle that will need to be cleared for a new CBA to be ratified: if the proposal gets a simple majority among the more than 2,000 players who are members of the NFLPA, it will likely get signed into action before the start of the 2020 league year — the final one governed under the current labor deal signed back in 2011 — on March 18.

While it is not yet known if any modifications have been made to the owners’ proposal that was sent to the player representatives last week, the fact that the NFLPA’s board voted to get all members involved in the process should be seen as a positive sign.