This
nfl.com report contains the following sentence that would seem to support Schefter, though its not the players who seem to be reluctant:
...suggests a lack of urgency. Having said that I am encouraged that progress is being made. It looks like the proof of the pudding will come at the end of the owners' meeting next week in Chicago. If they accept the draft framework that seems to be emerging then there will be grounds for realistic optimism.
My hesitation at the moment is centered around some of the owners who are less than competent, and want to make easier profits at the expense of the players and the football following public. They do not run their organizations anything like the Steelers, Patriots or Cowboys, and are using the expiry of the CBA as an opportunity to get something similar to a tax cut, in other words more for no effort. If these franchises were more successful and efficient there would be more money in the pot for the players. Franchises are like gardens - if you don't tend and nurture them they produce neither blooms nor fruits. Because there is a limited number of franchises the owners have an obligation to look after their clubs and make them both competitive and healthy.
The players are far from blameless and if they had approached these negotiations with proposals, that would place conditions on the poorly performing franchises, alongside their increased employment demands they might have reduced the appearance of greed versus greed that led to the acrimony in the first month of talks.
I hope that the better business sense of Kraft and other good owners will prevail. I trust that they will.
