NFL owners meet to discuss end of lockout

NFL owners are arriving at a hotel near Atlanta’s airport to discuss—and possibly vote on—a deal to end the lockout that began in March. Jeffrey Lurie of the Eagles and Mike Brown of the Bengals are among the owners present this morning. The league has said it hopes to have a final agreement with players ready for ratification today. Players had been expected to vote Wednesday on a full proposal to settle the labor dispute, but they did not. Even after all acceptable terms are established, a deal would lead to a collective bargaining agreement only if NFL Players Association team reps recommend re-establishing the group as a union, which must be approved by a majority vote of the 1,900 players. Those votes probably would be done by conference call. A person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press there was agreement among those players on what items needed to be resolved before any overall offer would be accepted. A second person, also speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks are supposed to be secret, says those players gave what was termed “conditional approval” of the proposal, as it stood Wednesday.