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NFLPA hopes to have new deal by next season

Sports Xchange
February 04, 2016 at 6:14 pm

SAN FRANCISCO — In a 2015 NFL season that featured a reduced suspension for Dallas Cowboys defensive end Greg Hardy and the elimination of a suspension for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, the NFL Players Association continues to strive toward what it believes will be a more equitable system of dealing with player issues.

Thursday, prior to the union’s annual press conference, executive director DeMaurice Smith told The Sports Xchange he hopes to have a new agreement in place in time for the 2016 regular season.

“I’m cautiously optimistic we can reach a resolution,” Smith said during the press conference. “We believe collectively bargained changes are good for everyone. In the meantime, we will continue to fight to protect players.”

What Smith and the NFLPA hope is that the changes will lead to having independent arbitration as opposed to commissioner Roger Goodell being the one that hands out discipline and then makes the decision when appealed.

Although the NFL is appealing, Brady’s suspension for allegedly being part of deflating footballs in last season’s AFC Championship Game was thrown out by Judge Richard Berman prior to the start of the 2015 season.

Hardy was originally suspended 10 games by Goodell, but former NFL executive Harold Henderson was the arbitrator, and he slashed the suspension to four games.

In 2012, former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, acting as the appeals office in the New Orleans Saints bounty case, vacated the suspensions of four players: defensive ends Will Smith and Anthony Hargrove and linebackers Jonathan Vilma and Scott Fujita.

NFLPA hopes to have new deal by next season |