NFL, NFLPA making progress, but amnesty for players 'very unlikely'

September 7, 2014 10:20 am ET

It's rare that in the course of a sensitive, lengthy and potentially historic negotiation you can take a snapshot and get the NFL and the players union to agree on what's going on. But after talking to people involved in these negotiations from both sides, within minutes of one another, there is actually some agreement.

These talks, that are aimed at providing closure to issues like hGH testing, new DUI penalties, new thresholds for marijuana testing and more, will continue and dialogue is expected later this week, but there isn't a glowing sense of optimism these long-lingering issues are close to a resolution.

“We are nowhere near close to closure,” as one NFLPA official put it.

“This idea that we are close to a deal -- it's simply not accurate,” one league official said. “I don't know why people keep writing that.”

In actuality, the sides still have yet to settle many of the core issues that have prevented this deal from getting done for years. On that they agreed.

And sources on both sides of the negotiation also agreed that the idea of “amnesty” for players who are about to begin suspensions, like Wes Welker and Josh Gordon, has always been “very unlikely,” and not something either side is vigorously pursuing. “Right now I don't see us reaching an agreement in the near term with or without player suspensions being lifted,” a league source said.

The league actually feels as if the NFLPA “retreated” on some key measures over the weekend in areas where it believed they had been making progress. NFLPA sources maintain that issues like allowing the NFL to discipline players once arrested for DUI, and not waiting until the case is adjudicated “is a complete non-starter.” Futhermore, the sides have not agreed to what a new marijuana positive-test threshold would be, though it would increase as part of any deal, and the NFLPA is adamant that it would agree to a threshold below that of the US Military, which is roughly three times higher than the current standard.

Amensty for players like Josh Gordon is still unlikely (USATSI)

And, the sides have yet to fully agree to all the parameters of how appeals of drug cases not involving an actual positive test – where there is anecdotal evidence a player used an illegal substance, like the baseball “Biogenesis” scandal – as well, one of the principle hold-ups in past negotiations.

If the sides are able to hash out these issues, the NFLPA would still have to put the new policy to a vote, and it would take time for all of the documents to be drawn up, looked over by lawyers and signed off on. So even in the event of a tentative agreement, possible hiccups could emerge.