NFL Agrees On Collective Bargaining Agreement
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The NFL announced that it has entered a collective bargaining agreement set to last for 11 years, the NFL confirmed.
NFL players approve CBA through 2030: https://t.co/0UVNUPzpdV pic.twitter.com/y0VFD2vDxC
— NFL (@NFL) March 15, 2020
The agreement has been highly contested and took 10 months to negotiate. The vote for the agreement was not public. 1,019 players voted for the CBA while 959 voted against it.
The 2020 season is still set to have four pre-season games; however, there will also be an additional regular game, bringing the total to 17 regular season games. This will be integrated by teams gradually from 2021 to 2023. It is uncertain at this point how the league will deal with the uneven number of games.
Additionally, team practices are being affected. In the new agreement, practices cannot last more than 2.5 hours and players can only stay on the facilities for 12 hours a day. There will be a mandatory week off after the third and final preseason game.
No Steelers player has made a public comment about the agreement yet.