March 2006: NFL owners voted overwhelmingly (30-2) to extend the CBA that was set to expire after the 2007 season for an additional six years thereby guaranteeing football through the 2012 season.

February 2007: NFL owners began imposing lockout clauses in coaches’ and executives’ contracts that gave clubs the right to reduce compensation in the event of a lockout. Examples include language allowing the clubs to reduce, terminate, or suspend the contract on 20 days’ notice, reduce salary by 50 percent if a lockout continues for more than 90 days, terminate the employee without pay on 60 days’ notice, and extend the contract another year at the same terms as 2011 if at least eight NFL games are canceled due to a lockout.

February 2008: The NFL asked the 8^th Circuit Court of Appeals to end the jurisdiction of U.S. District Judge David Doty over the free agency/salary cap system. The league claimed that Judge Doty was biased in favor of the players. The 8^th Circuit disagreed and ruled in favor of the NFLPA on November 10, 2009. As such, Judge Doty’s jurisdiction continues.

March 2008: The NFL retained veteran labor-relations attorney, Bob Batterman, as outside counsel. Batterman is widely credited for orchestrating the 2004-2005 lockout in the NHL.

May 2008: NFL owners voted unanimously to opt out of the 2006 CBA extension thereby terminating the agreement in March of 2011—two years early.

December 2008: The NFL began a strategic and premeditated course of action designed to reduce expenses by laying off 15% of its staff.

January 2009: Despite its victory in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in American Needle, Inc. v. National Football League, et al., the NFL took the unusual step of supporting American Needle’s request for review by the United States Supreme Court in an effort to obtain a broader ruling that would find the clubs and the league to constitute a single entity for antitrust purposes. If the league and the clubs are considered a single entity, they would not be deemed to be competitors who have made agreements in restraint of trade under the antitrust laws.

February 2009: Roger Goodell took a 25% pay cut for the 2008 season and instituted a salary freeze for all league employees at least through the 2009 season.

March 2009: At the annual NFL owners’ meetings, the owners passed a resolution allowing all NFL teams to opt out of a defined benefit pension plan for NFL coaches and executives. As a result, nine teams have opted out of the league’s established policy and now provide less beneficial pension plans to coaches and executives.

March 2009: DirecTV renewed its deal to serve as the NFL’s exclusive satellite carrier through the 2014 season. The deal is worth $1 billion annually and right’s fees will be paid to the league notwithstanding a lockout in 2011.

May 2009: Fox and CBS renewed their broadcasting rights deals with the NFL. The deals, which are said to be worth more than $712 million a year from Fox and $622 million a year from CBS, guarantee payment even if there is a lockout.

May-September 2009: In continuing its efforts to solidify a war chest in the event of a lockout, the NFL agreed to extend its multimillion dollar corporate sponsorships with FedEx, Visa, IBM, and Proctor & Gamble beyond the 2011 season.

October 2009: The NFL hired former NFLPA President George Martin as President of the NFL Alumni Association—a newly created position. To some the decision to hire Vincent may be viewed as altruistic, to others, including Peter King from Sports Illustrated, the league’s motives were less benign, speculating that league may be trying “to crush the NFLPA by co-opting some of its alum[ni].”

December 2009: The NFL informed the NFLPA of its intent to terminate the Supplemental Revenue Sharing (SRS) program that promotes competitive balance and helps the lower-revenue clubs compete. Former VP of the Green Bay Packers Andy Brandy described the NFL’s decision to pull out of the supplemental revenue sharing plan as “sending a clear message to its players and the union that the teams that want to go under the floor and cut team payroll to pre-2006 levels, say $85-$90 million…will now have a legitimate reason for doing so.”

February 2010: The NFL launched a new website, www.NFLlabor.com, to exclusively address labor matters. The NFL is using the website to disseminate false and misleading propaganda in an attempt to drive a wedge between the players and the NFLPA. This is not the first time a league has launched its own website devoted to a labor conflict. In the stages leading up to its own lockout, the NHL, led by NFL attorney Bob Batterman, developed its own portal dedicated to voicing its perspective on the ongoing negotiations with the NHLPA.

February 2010: The NFLPA filed a Special Master case against the league because it discovered that the NFL did not provide its lower-revenue clubs with all of the supplemental revenue sharing that was promised in the CBA for the years 2006-08. Such funds are important to ensure that the lower-revenue teams can field competitive teams, offer competitive salaries and provide their fans with hope for success on the field each NFL season.

February 2010: The NFL announced the hiring of former NFLPA President Troy Vincent as VP/Player Development for Active Players, less than a year after he lost the election to be the NFLPA Executive Director and as the league and union are engaged in contentious negotiations for a new labor deal. The timing of the hire raised serious questions about the league’s motive as described by Bill Gould, former National Labor Relations Board Chair, who said it was quite uncommon for management to hire a former leader of the union it negotiates against during the midst of collective bargaining.

February 2010: The NFL rejected the NFLPA’s proposal to continue the current capped system for an additional year which would have allowed the parties ample time to complete work on a long-term CBA.

February 2010: Reports surfaced that the NFL is seeking to acquire the newly formed United Football League (UFL). Though the league denied the reports, such a move would further illustrate the league’s attempts to restrict player mobility and strengthen its monopoly of professional football.

March 2010: The league agreed to a four-year $720 million agreement with Verizon, the largest U.S. wireless operator, to become the league’s exclusive wireless partner. The agreement marks the biggest overlap between a sponsorship and media deal in American sports league history.

May 2010: In one of the largest sponsorship deals ever, Anheuser-Busch and the NFL agreed to a six-year $1.2 billion deal to become the official beer sponsor of the NFL beginning in 2011.

August 2010: NFL team executives negotiated contracts of the 2010 first-round draft picks to reflect the belief there will be a lockout in 2011 by changing the payment date of option bonuses from the first two weeks of the league year, which begins in March, to around the time the first regular-season game is played in 2011, whenever that may be.

September 2010: Five months prior to the implementation of a lockout, the NFL informed its employees of its three-phase plan that will require many of its employees to take unpaid leaves of absences as well as pay cuts.

October 2010: The NFL is requiring banks lending to its teams to extend the traditional six-month grace period for declaring a default to stretch instead through to the end of the 2011 season in preparation for a lockout.

Source: NFLPA by NFLPA