NFL Football: New CBA Goodies!

Heyyyy!!!!! The NFL is back! While it was beginning to look better a couple weeks ago, the long wait is officially over with, and now we don’t have to pretend to like the CFL, whew…. I guess college football could have held us over, but while that certainly would work in basketball (NBA doesn’t hold a candle to the NCAA as far as regular season entertainment) the NFL is the elite of elites and everyone that has ever loved the egg shaped ball with laces can take a deep breath and get excited for pro-ball.

Over the next month the staff at LL.com will be making up for lost time, getting right down to it and providing a nice draft kit for you fantasy football junkies. We’ll also preview some of the season and get to making some picks when the time comes. I hope you’re ready for sound advice in all regards!

For now, I’d like to explore a couple of the great new pieces of the CBA (collective bargaining agreement – you know, that thing that everyone in the league, evil or good, fought over for the last 4 months). There’s also a couple things that aren’t so great – but hey, you win some you lose some.

The poor get richer! Whaaaaaatttt??? That’s right, usually it’s common place to concede that the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Usually, that’s the case – but when it comes to the players making the league minimum in the NFL (Which actually composes most of the league) the minimum just got a little bigger – and it will continue to get bigger. 55 grand per year might not sound like a lot, but, shoooooot, that’s way more than I make!!!!

Rookies lose hold on the hold outs! This is probably the greatest part about the new CBA for the fan. There won’t be rookie holdouts – there’s basically a set price that rookies drafted in certain spots will get paid, with percentages (much lower percentages) of current contracts going to each draft pick. The days of 70 million dollar contracts for over-hyped 1st round quarterbacks are gone, as are the long holdouts, as are the extra fees for sports agents, and extra money for those guys. In fact, even the 3% that goes to agents is going down to 2% – this can’t be any greater!!! Get to camp on time, rook, clock’s a tickin’!

Holdouts were so dumb, that’s one thing the NBA got right!

Less Practice? It looks like the players really put the kibosh on the old fashioned hard nosed football practices – their promised schedules are splattered with days off, non-padded practices, no 2-a-days, no more than 3.5 hours on the field per day (4.5 for training camps), and free ice cream every Tuesday and Thursday.  It’s looking cushy until you realize they have to run into Ray Lewis once a year (twice for all Steelers, Browns, and Bengals) – though I think those teams get a little bonus every time the famous LB draws snot bubbles…Seriously though, no 2-a-days? These guys made rules that they could only work 4 hours a day at most – that’s awesome – I should do that! Wait, I do do that….

Cap the Cap, under the cap, a doo-rag maybe? The new 120 million cap is a little smaller than 2009, but hey, what’s really cool about the cap is the 89% rule. That means that teams under the cap have to at least spend 89% of the 120 million cap on their roster. If they don’t, that leftover money will be added up and dispersed throughout the roster – so if the owner is being super cheap, he just ends up paying everyone else more money – Al Davis hates this, I can promise you that – and therefore, we should all love this! (Al hates puppies, soft things, gummy bears, nectarines, walks on the beach, good movies, laughing, beating hearts, and angels – see….)

There are a ton of things involved with the new league rules, the CBA I mean – but those are my highlights – and I couldn’t be happier!

NFL Football in 2011!!! Fantastic!