WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawyers from both sides of the NFL's labor dispute plan to work through the weekend - although not face-to-face - to try to resolve the differences preventing players from voting on the owner-approved proposal to end the lockout.
After the NFL Players Association decided not to vote Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, it's now possible the group won't make any decision until next week. It all depends on how long it takes to resolve the remaining differences.
So the NFL is stuck in a holding pattern. As it is, clubs already were told not to expect players to begin arriving at facilities today, when owners hoped gates would open.
"Now it's just waiting," Carolina Panthers general manager Marty Hurney said at an Atlanta hotel where team executives were briefed Friday on new rules for next season. "Be flexible, and wait and see what happens."
Owners ratified the tentative terms 31-0 - the Oakland Raiders abstained - Thursday, provided players would give their OK, too, and re-establish their union.
But players decided later Thursday not to hold a vote, saying they hadn't had a chance to see a finished product.
By Friday, it was in hand.
"Player leadership is discussing the most recent written proposal with the NFL, which includes a settlement agreement, deal terms and the right process for addressing recertification," NFLPA president Kevin Mawae said in a statement released by the group. "There will not be any further NFLPA statements today out of respect for the Kraft family while they mourn the loss of Myra Kraft."
Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith attended Friday's funeral in Newton, Mass., for Kraft, the wife of New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft.
Even when players decide they're OK with a final agreement, their approval process is more complicated than the owners' was. The 32 team reps must recommend accepting the settlement. Then the 10 named plaintiffs in the players' lawsuit against the league - including Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees - must officially inform the court of their approval.
Eventually, all 1,900 players would take a majority vote to approve returning the NFLPA to union status. When talks broke down in March, allowing the old collective bargaining agreement to expire, the players dissolved the union, turning the NFLPA into a trade association. That's what allowed the players to sue the owners in federal court.
Only after the NFLPA is again a union can it negotiate certain parts of a new CBA. Among those items that are of most concern to players are the league's personal conduct policy, drug testing and benefits, such as pension funds, the disability plan, and the "88 Plan," which provides money for former players with dementia or Alzheimer's disease.
The major economic framework for a 10-year deal was worked out 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 benefits; a salary system to rein in spending on first-round draft picks; and unrestricted free agency for most players after four seasons.