NFL Owners Agree To Drop Free Agent Demands

A major breakthrough has been made regarding the NFL labor talks.  A deal could be agreed to very soon, which will mean the end of the horrid lockout.

Owners have agreed to end their pursuit of putting in first-right-of-refusal clauses on 2011 free agents.  The players were unwilling to agree to the NFL's wishes because many of this year's free agents were restricted under last year's uncapped system.

Owners asked for the right to designate three free agents.  Owners were looking for the right to match contract offers made to those players by other teams in an effort to restrict free agency further.  This was one of the last major sticking points in negotiations to extend the collective bargaining agreement.

The lockout is believed to be ending next week.  Once the lockout ends, we will likely see a 72-hour window for team's to sign their own free agents.  Unsigned free agents would be able to sign with any other team after that.  Translation: We are going to see about six months worth of transactions crammed into two weeks, and it's going to be awesome.