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The NFL owners have agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement, but the lockout is still in effect.

While everyone is hopeful the players will recertify as a union and agree to the deal, it is not quite that simple.

"It's a messy situation," ESPN's NFL writer John Clayton said on Sports 620 KTAR's Doug and Wolf. "Trust is still not there on either side."

The owners agreed to the deal on Thursday and the players were supposed to agree to it shortly after, until they read over the owner approved CBA and noticed a few stumbling blocks.

"They were prepared to vote it in last night, but all of a sudden the curveballs that they saw was ‘we didn't agree on this, we can't vote on it,'" Clayton said.

This may be the most progress made in months, but the lockout is still in effect and time is of the essence as one game has already been cancelled.

The annual Hall of Fame game has been cancelled and Clayton estimates that if the lockout continues past Wednesday or Thursday, the first week of preseason games will be missed.

Although the players want to approve a deal and get back to work, things get complicated when over a thousand players are involved as they all have different opinions. While getting large groups of people to agree upon one thing is a difficult task, Clayton makes it simple by offering one simple suggestion to the players.

"This is the best deal, shut up and vote."

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    Fred T. wrote...
    Clayton goes too far...
    Clayton should "shut up!" He's a reporter. Report the facts and keep your opinions to yourself. Maybe the old Dragnet show with Jack Webb should be shown to journalists today.... "just the facts ma'am"
  • Abuse
    CardsFan_ wrote...
    I agree, shut up and vote
    Doesn't mean they have to vote yes, but there's a deal out there that the owners have approved. Either it's acceptable or it's not - either way, stop whining about it not being what was expected and just either vote yes or no. That will tell everyone where we stand.
  • Abuse
    Jon P. wrote...
    Worry less about Clayton
    Who cares? Yes, he is just a journalist, but it doesn't mean he is wrong. They need to end this waffling and get it done. Weren't the players whining, oh, we just want to play football. Well, now here is your opprotunity to either do that or go back the drawing board. Right now the players are a bunch of Brett Favre's that cannot make a decision.
  • Abuse
    AZsportsFan46 wrote...
    Players intentionally dragging it out
    It's no secret the majority of players are not big fans of training camp. They're purposely going to drag this out as long as possible in order to shorten training camp. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this goes another couple weeks.
  • Abuse
    sundevil7901 wrote...
    Those owners are slick
    They did a brilliant job of shifting the focus to the players. By staging their little press conference and proclaiming the lockout over, the players are going to be the bad guys if they refuse to approve the new CBA. They've got me convinced.
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