SB Nation St. Louis - NFL Lockout Nears End As Owners Vote For Resolution

NFL Lockout Free Agency: Mark Clayton, Rams Have Three Rumor-Packed Days To Negotiate

2011-07-22T14:00:50Z

As the season drew to a close back in 2010 one thing seemed certain about the St. Louis Rams' receiving corps, weak though it was: Mark Clayton would be back on it. Clayton had been Sam Bradford's favorite target since being acquired in an emergency trade following Donnie Avery's season-ending preseason blowout, and after he was lost for the year himself both sides seemed eager to talk and even more eager to say all the right things. Enter the NFL lockout, and month after month of free agency suspended animation.

Since Clayton and the Rams' seemingly inevitable deal the Rams have drafted two wide receivers and a tight end, replaced their offensive coordinator, and heard great things about Donnie Avery, whose 40 times were perhaps the biggest news of the barren post-draft period for Rams fans. All of a sudden the Rams' receivers aren't much more of a sure thing than they were, but they are considerably greater in number. That makes it tough to see where Clayton will fit in.

We'll know soon, of course. NFL free agency this year will be a kind of nightmarish miniaturized version of same, with all the rumors and sure things and left-field-signings coming in one three-day period of exclusive negotiation with a team's free agents. it's going to be wild, whether they sign him or not.

NFL Lockout Nears End As Owners Vote For Resolution

2011-07-22T00:12:10Z

The St. Louis Rams’ Stan Kroenke was among 31 NFL owners who voted for an immediate end to the NFL lockout Thursday morning after a week of hurried negotiation and more twists and turns than fans were hoping for. The Oakland Raiders were the only team that abstained in the final vote, but now it’s out of management’s hands and onto the players, who were set to hold a conference call later Thursday to address the news.

The players still have a long way to go before they’re ready to begin the 2011 NFL season—which looks, for the moment, like it will escape unscathed from the lockout as we know it. The truncated offseason will begin with an extraordinarily brief free agency season and an equally rough approximation of training camp and the preseason, but before all that is even available the NFLPA will have to deal with the aftermath of having decertified itself as a bargaining move in the early days of the lockout.

We’re not quite in the clear yet, but things are looking better for the NFL than they have since the end of the Super Bowl.

NFL Lockout: Meeting Thursday Could End Our Long National Football League NIghtmare

2011-07-21T13:01:14Z

The NFL lockout edged ever closer to settlement Wednesday, with the players approving some kind of "conditional settlement" in their own meeting, rather than voting, as earlier expected. (Then again, maybe they conditionally voted, which—okay.) That means Thursday's owners' meeting, in Atlanta, could mean the end of the lockout only if the players' lawyers can hash out their clients' remaining issues with the owners' lawyers.

That's right: The latest official date for the possible end of the Lockout is Thursday. That's today, if you're reading this on Thursday! Harold Camping could not be reached for comment at press time, but everyone in the NFL press corps confirmed that they had sold all their belongings and stopped following other sports in preparation for this event.

The players' remaining issues are poorly understood right now, but should come clearer later Thursday, whether they're resolved or not. Jim Trotter's Twitter feed is worth following as things in the least enjoyable lockout in the history of not-especially-enjoyable lockouts grinds to a conclusion, as is SB Nation's long-suffering NFL hub.

Hall Of Fame Game Could Be Canceled, St. Louis Rams, Chicago Bears Fans Shrug

2011-07-17T13:00:49Z

The NFL lockout could be coming to an end shortly, but it might claim one victim near and not especially dear to the hearts of St. Louis Rams fans—the annual Hall of Fame Game they were scheduled to play against the Chicago Bears in Canton, Ohio on August 7.

The Hall of Fame Game, the first game of the NFL preseason, would come just a week after teams are rumored to be returning from the lockout, which would lead to sloppy play at best and potentially dangerous situations at worst for players who are undertrained and perhaps underconditioned.

The NFL continues to deny the cancellation through a spokesman, but the game is, at this point, entirely contingent on the lockout ending in the next several days. After that it won't matter whether the Rams, the Bears, the NFL, and the Hall of Fame all expect things to go on as scheduled—there just won't be enough time.

If Henny Youngman ever said one useful thing about the NFL lockout, though, it was this: Take the preseason—please!

NFL Free Agency Could Be Crazy Three Days From End Of Lockout

2011-07-16T14:01:06Z

So it looks like we'll be getting a full measure of NFL Free Agency freakouts after all—with the news that the NFL lockout's resolution has come after what is reported to be an abandonment by the owners of their demand for a right of first refusal this offseason, the current scuttlebutt suggests that there will be a three-day window in which team and free agent may negotiate exclusively, at which point Drew Rosenhaus is going to get super rich.

The three-day window might enrich ESPN the most, though. What could possibly make for better 24-hour-cable-news TV? They'll have 72 hours of solid wondering about which team will retain which players, and then at least a week of wild speculation while everybody rushes for the exits.

I plan on getting in on the action by declaring a three-day exclusive negotiating window with the NFL, during which they can offer me some competitive terms for my Sunday entertainment while I discuss my future with the UFL, Arena Football, and Everywhere-else-rules Football.

NFL Lockout Over In Theory, Deathless In Practice

2011-07-16T13:00:54Z

The NFL lockout might finally be nearing an end. The owners and the players—the two actors in this summer's even-longer production of Strange Interlude—have reportedly agreed to most of a CBA that pleases both parties, thanks in part to a recent decision by the owners to stop pursuing a right of first refusal for teams with limbo-bound free agents. (Instead they'll get three days to negotiate, whereupon ESPN will cry hot tears of joy.)

With the financial parts of the agreement finally, uh, agreed, it seems like we might finally have a real NFL season ahead of us, just in time to get to watch some really boring NFL preseason action. But I've lost the ability to believe in the lockout ever ending—I just can't do it.

So far as I can tell by now, the NFL is some kind of collective-bargaining sport in which teams of lawyers, along with old rich men and young rich men, compete to earn the best short-term deal for themselves while playing a game of chicken with the long-term health of that very sport. I could be wrong, though—I dimly remember a goofily-shaped ball...

NFL Lockout: Welcome To Possible False Ending Number Infinity

2011-07-15T14:12:10Z

Did you like Inception? Have you ever considered living it? I feel like I’m about to get another kick, because I’m having yet another dream about the NFL lockout being really close to an ending for sure this time guys players and owners are totally psyched about it. Turf Show Times reports, and offers the proper dose of skepticism.

All the right things are being said: Questions about rookie compensation and the salary floor are being addressed, the small-market and big-market teams are all in the room, and—perhaps most importantly—everyone on both sides is increasingly aware of the public backlash that would come from missing the start of the regular season, and the fiscal backlash that would come from missing the otherwise-unimportant preseason.

Look, they fooled me the first time, and I fooled myself the second time, and I don’t even remember what happened the third time. But now I won’t declare the NFL lockout finished until Week 1 has gone down in the books, and even then I’ll be suspicious until Sam Bradford removes his helmet.

NFL Lockout: Mark Clayton Hopes To Resign With St. Louis Rams When He's Allowed

2011-06-29T12:45:19Z

The St. Louis Rams, like all teams, have been barred by the NFL lockout from free agency as we know it. For the most part that's just led to a lot of spurious NFL rumors, but for the Rams it's done something very particular to their roster—it's kept them from resigning veteran wide receiver Mark Clayton, who looked like a sure thing immediately after the NFL season. Clayton spoke with a Tulsa paper about the issue, where he was catching balls from Heisman-winner... Jason White.

Apparently he'd hoped to work out an extension with the Rams after the season, but the lockout had other plans; now he's spent the rest of the offseason unemployed, while in the meantime the Rams have hired a new offensive coordinator and drafted three rookie pass-catchers of their own. Meanwhile, Donnie Avery, who he was acquired to replace, is working his way back from his own knee injury.

Clayton's less of a sure thing than he was before the season ended, but if the Rams look for a veteran receiver once they're allowed to, he's still one of the easiest bets.