We are officially halfway to the end of the NFL lockout. NFL owners met in Atlanta today and approved the new collective bargaining agreement by a margin of 31-0. (The Oakland Raiders, for some reason, abstained from voting.)
The news of the vote broke just before Roger Goodell spoke at a press conference in Atlanta. At the presser he said that the new CBA is 10 years long and is contingent upon the players approving it. While there is nothing concrete about when that will happen, the expectation is for the players to sign off on the new CBA very soon (possibly tonight). Goodell spoke to DeMaurice Smith prior to the presser and said, "He is going to take care of his business."
If the players do in fact approve the new CBA, the lockout will finally be over. The only casualty as far as games go is the Hall of Fame Game, which Goodell said was canceled. With the Bears and Rams originally scheduled to start training camp tomorrow, playing the Hall of Fame Game was simply unrealistic, so the league canceled it.
The good news is that the lockout should be over soon enough that nothing else will be affected. Considering at one point it looked like all of the preseason would be wiped out, I think we can all deal with just missing out on the Hall of Fame Game.
More coming soon.