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Agreement In Place; Players Will Vote Once Document Is Done

WASHINGTON –- The lockout could well be in its final hours.

Legal teams for NFL owners and players negotiated through the weekend and deep into Monday morning, wrapping up at 3 a.m. with an agreement on basic terms.

According to multiple sources involved, the deal is not 100 percent done yet, with the final document just completed about two hours prior a scheduled conference call with the 32 team player reps at 11 a.m. ET. Legal teams are proofing and fixing the details. That's important, because the language of a completed deal is what caused some of the hang-ups that occurred last week.

The goal is for the NFLPA to present the completed document to its 13-man executive committee between 11 a.m. to noon ET on Monday, with a vote to follow. Some members of the executive committee aren't expected to arrive in D.C. until the 11 o'clock hour. The player rep call will include a briefing of the deal and, in particular, changes since last Wednesday's meeting.

The player reps would then vote on the deal. After that, the 10 plaintiffs in the Brady et al v. the National Football League et al lawsuit would have to sign off, which is fully expected.

At this point, what remains is "a few small points" in the language, according to a source.

According to another source, the league has a plan in place for the coming days. The doors would open Tuesday, with clubs allowed to sign draftees and rookie free agents. Free agency would begin Friday at 6 p.m. ET, though clubs could begin to speak with free agents starting Tuesday. Ten teams would open camp Wednesday, another 10 Thursday, another 10 Friday, and the remaining two on Sunday.

The league's old labor deal expired in March, and the owners locked out the players, the NFL's first work stoppage since 1987.

"We have every reason to believe it's going to be a good day," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello wrote in an email to The Associated Press.

The major economic framework for the deal was worked out more than a week ago.

That included how the more than $9 billion in annual league revenues will be divided (about 53 percent to owners and 47 percent to players over the next decade; the old CBA resulted in nearly a 50-50 split); a per-club cap of about $120 million for salary and bonuses in 2011 -- and at least that in 2012 and 2013 -- plus about $22 million for benefits; a salary system to rein in spending on first-round draft picks; and unrestricted free agency for most players after four seasons.

Once the 32 team representatives approve a deal, the total NFLPA membership would need to vote, with a simple majority required for passage.

The 10 named plaintiffs in the players' lawsuit against the league -- including Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees -- must officially inform the court in Minneapolis of their approval of the pact, too.

Even after that, while training camps would be opened, a true CBA can't be agreed upon until the NFLPA re-establishes itself as a union. Players will need to vote to do so even as the sides put the finishing touches on a deal; only after the NFLPA is again a union can it negotiate such items as the league's personal conduct policy and drug testing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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