A new day in the NFL

That’s right people, NFL football is back! The lockout has lasted 131 days and appears we are in the final hours of the lockout.

Sources say the NFL Players Association and the league’s owners have reached agreement on the remaining points needed in their 10-year labor deal, sources from both sides said.

Despite the fact the new agreement will require a majority vote from the players, that part of the deal between the two sides is considered The NFLPA is making plans for a major press conference Monday. But first the player reps’ executive committee is scheduled to fly to Washington, D.C., on Sunday so they can vote Monday. a formality, according to sources.

Once the players ratify the deal, training camps and free agency are likely to begin the same day, in what would be the equivalent of merging Thanksgiving and Christmas into one holiday.

By rule, training camps can’t start until the new league year does.

Major breakthroughs in Saturday discussions set up the timetable for the resolution to the 131-day lockout.

Owners tentatively agreed to a players-recommended plan for the NFLPA to bring players into team facilities starting as early as Wednesday to physically vote on whether to recertify the current trade association as a union, a source told ESPN.com’s John Clayton.

The players’ executive committee will meet in Washington on Monday, a move that, according to a high-ranking NFLPA official, was not communicated to the NFLPA executive committee until Saturday morning via phone.

Following that, a recommendation has to be made by the 32 player representatives, likely via conference call. As of late Saturday night, no time had been set for that vote, but it is expected to occur Monday after the executive committee votes to recommend approval, according to the high-ranking official.

The executive committee is also expected to vote to recommend recertifying itself as a union, according to the source. A recommendation also has to be made by the 32 player representatives on that count.

When the executive committee accepts the new CBA, players from certain teams will be granted permission to report to training camps Wednesday and players from other teams will be asked to report to training camps Friday, a source said. The hope from both sides is there are enough votes to recertify the union by as early as Friday.

For that to happen, a 50-percent-plus-one-vote majority of the players have to accept the NFLPA as its union and accept the terms of a CBA.

Much of the confidence in Monday’s vote is due in part to the continued working relationship between Smith and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, a source said. The pair have been working with each other directly as the sides near an agreement and continued to do so through the weekend to ensure the remaining issues were resolved, according to a source.