Full NFL player membership to vote on new collective bargaining agreement

INDIANAPOLIS — NFL players are set to vote on the proposed Collective Bargaining Agreement after two separate meetings Tuesday night.

If passed — and it will take a simple majority of all NFL players to approve it — the NFL will feature 17 games, an extra playoff team in each conference and labor peace through 2030.

Just before 2 a.m. in Indianapolis on Wednesday, the NFL Players Association announced that its Board of Player Representatives had voted to send the proposed CBA to the full membership.

It’s unclear how long it will take for the NFLPA to bring the vote to the players, or to count the votes. It’s not expected to be a quick process.

Owners and members of the NFLPA executive committee and board of directors met for almost four hours Tuesday night. The NFLPA then relayed the results of that meeting to the Board of Player Representatives, which features one player from each team. That board decided to send the proposal to a full vote.

Passing the CBA this week would raise the salary cap in 2020, which would benefit the Bears, who have a projected $26 million in space, $19 million below the league average.

On Tuesday, Bears general manager Ryan Pace said the Bears were preparing for two realities — one in which the CBA got passed and one in which it did not.

It seems likely now he’ll only have to worry about the former. The CBA is expected to pass.

The union’s concerns during a 10-month negotiation period centered around the 17-game schedule, which it felt was antithetical to ownership claims that they cared about player safety. The new CBA will raise minimum salaries, though, and give the players a slightly larger share of revenue.

The new 17-game schedule is not expected to begin in 2020.