NFL Earns Victory Over NFLPA

In what could be a preclude to a tough and intense negotiating process to develop a new NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement, the NFL owners earned a victory by allowing the players' salary to be held in an escrow account should there be a lockout, instead of the players receiving their paychecks. This is a huge blow for many of the lower earning players who rely on these checks to make ends meet and don't have multi-million dollar signing bonuses to fall back on. This could potentially create some division among the players, but NFLPA DeMaurice Smith attemtped to downplay the victory, and expects no negative emotions to result from this decision. Roger Goodell and Smith continue to try to pound out a new agreement, however, it is looking more and more likely that some sort of work stoppage will result.