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NFL Lockout News: Lockout to end, Free Agency to start this afternoon

The NFLPA executive committee is meeting now to vote to recommend the approval of the proposed CBA deal. Once they do, free agency will start immediately. ESPN is reporting that teams will be allowed to sign their own free agents to contracts this afternoon, as well as draftees. All contracts will be voided if the NFLPA does not reconstitute by Saturday. Undrafted free agents will have to wait until Tuesday to sign with teams.

Teams will also be able to talk to unrestricted free agents immediately, though they will not be allowed to sign them to contracts until tomorrow. Teams will also be allowed to talk trades with other teams as of today, although they won't become official until Saturday. Free agency will be swift and very chaotic, and there should be a lot of moves throughout the next couple of days.

As for the rest of the timeline, players will report on a daily schedule. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday players of 10 teams will report and vote for the reconstitution of the union. The Jets and Texans will be the last two teams, and their players will report on Sunday. In this timeline, the NFLPA should be reconstituted by Saturday.

The league year will officially begin on August 2, which is when camps would open as well. Once the NFLPA has reformed, the NFL and NFLPA will engage in CBA negotiations to determine benefits, health care, handling of grievances and other details. None of these issues will hold up the season, though, and we should be able to say the lockout is finally over later this afternoon.

UPDATE: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will open their training camp on Thursday, fifteen days before their first preseason game, August 12 against the Kansas City Chiefs.

UPDATE 2: It seems undrafted free agents will have to wait until Tuesday after all.

UPDATE 3: Now NFL Network is reporting that all teams will open training camp on Friday. Lots of different and conflicting reports. I'll get a story up as soon as everything is 100% clear.