NFL Lockout Talks Hit Surprising Snag: The Rookie Wage Scale

There’s nothing like welcoming back an old friend. Locked-out NFL players and the National Football League will resume negotiations Monday morning, and according to the New York Times’ Judy Battista will be circling back to an item that most had sort of assumed had already been settled: the rookie wage scale. Hello again, rookie wage scale.

As far back as March, the NFLPA had conceded to trimming first-round rookie pay after the two sides basically agreed on the need to control rookie wages. However, in that March 19 letter Kevin Mawae and fellow players sent to Roger Goodell, players alleged the following:

Your rookie compensation proposal went far beyond addressing any problem of rookie “busts,” and amounted to severely restricting veteran salaries for all or most of their careers.

Since then, first-year players have scarcely been mentioned in labor discussion reports, other than during lockout milestones like the NFL Draft and the hacked-together Rookie Symposium.

Two ways to look at it: either talks have fallen back all the way to the beginning, or the two sides are tying up loose ends as they near a complete deal. Which do you think is more likely?