NFLPA director DeMaurice Smith held a meeting with agents in the wake of his seven day bargaining session with the owners, which happened under government supervision... The meetings had been marked by generally positive quotes and stories that maybe the two sides were moving toward an agreement. However, those hopes appear to have been dashed by one of agents in attendance at Smith's meeting. The unnamed agent texted Adam Schefter,
"Not close on one single issue," said the text, transmitted during the morning session. "This WILL go into September."
Awesome... By the way, one agent who is never going to give an anonymous quote is of course Drew Rosenhaus. He says the agents are 100% behind the NFLPA prez.
"The agents are unified. We are 100 percent behind Dee Smith and my clients are 100 percent behind Dee Smith," Rosenhaus said. "He's doing everything he can to get a fair deal with the owners."
It will be interesting to see how much power the agents wield here. While their desires are in line with all the current players on a lot of issues, there's likely a serious split between them and the players on rookie salaries. While the players are against the huge rookie salary cuts proposed by the owners, they have offered to cut rookie pay... agents won't like that.