NFL Considering Free Agency Changes
MIAMI (CBSMiami.com) – As Miami Dolphins fans continue to wait and wonder if there will ever be professional football worth watching again; the NFL is quietly putting together free agency rules that will be drastically different from last year's uncapped free agency.
According to Daniel Kaplan of the Sports Business Journal, the new rules aren't set and the league could still choose to go back to last year's free agency rules.
Any potential new rules would only be instituted if the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals lets Judge Susan Nelson's lockout injunction stand.
Judge Nelson previously had ordered the league open for business, but the Eighth Circuit granted a temporary stay while it reviewed Nelson's decision.
The biggest difference between the 2010 free agency rules and years past was that players had to wait until their sixth year before becoming an unrestricted free agent. Prior years only required four years to hit free agency.
If the 2010 rules are instituted, players who have four accrued seasons and would normally become unrestricted free agents would instead become restricted free agents.
In addition, the New York Times reported Monday that the NFL could create a more stringent drug testing policy headed by the World Anti-Doping Agency. The WADA testing would include testing for human growth hormone, or HGH.
HGH tests require blood tests and players have publicly said they would refuse the tests. However, without a union, the NFL could institute the rules and players would have to submit or run the risk of being penalized under the new rules.
