Eagles players eager to get started on the season

ROUGHLY 8 hours before commissioner Roger Goodell stepped before the cameras in Georgia last night and announced a lockout "agreement," which the NFL Players Association quickly downgraded to a "proposal" that it was not willing to accept, Eagles running back Eldra Buckley approached a small group of reporters gathered to watch what was billed as the final group workout at Power Train gym in Cherry Hill before the end of the lockout.

Buckley had a question.

"Could y'all call somebody and get this [bleep] over with?"

Eldra, if we had that number, we'd be auto-dialing it constantly right now.

As the larger-than-usual gathering at Power Train showed, Eagles players are flocking in, getting ready for a league year Goodell said last night would start on Wednesday, assuming the players association ratifies the agreement and recertifies as a union. Team facilities are to reopen tomorrow.

But as this past Wednesday's events in Washington presaged, the players association does not feel all the issues have been addressed satisfactorily. Apparently, the players want to be compensated further for dropping their antitrust suits and abandoning the court case over the "lockout insurance" the owners built into their TV deals. And there are outstanding non-economic issues, apparently, like the structure for discipline and drug testing. There is no guarantee either of those dates, tomorrow or Wednesday, will be valid. In fact, an Eagles spokesman said last night that the Wednesday date, which would have been the start of physicals at Lehigh, is automatically pushed back 1 day because the players did not ratify last night. It moves back 1 additional day as each 24-hour period passes.

Before going on an 8 p.m. conference call with team reps last night, NFLPA chief DeMaurice Smith sent players an email that declared "there is no agreement between the NFL and the players at this time."

The conference call concluded without a vote on the NFL proposal, which several players said they haven't seen. A second players association email, from general counsel Richard Berthelsen, then questioned whether the NFL was violating federal labor laws by trying to coerce the players into forming a union, according to Sports Illustrated. (Again, they have to be a union again for the CBA to be valid.)

It's an open secret that agents and players feel throughout the process, the owners' side has projected an excessive optimism, hoping to get momentum rolling toward a settlement, the owners knowing that a lot of players aren't really hunkered down for a long fight and are eager to get on with their too-short careers. The unilateral ratification of last night's "agreement" might be the ultimate manifestation of this dynamic.

By holding a news conference and declaring that an agreement had been reached, Goodell and the owners turned up the public pressure on the players several notches.

As Eagles linebacker Jamar Chaney tweeted last night: "Ppl keep sayin they want football. Let me ask u something, do u think we as players don't wanna play? Cum on now. We LOVE da game mo than u think."

Eagles player rep Winston Justice said, in an email after the conference call: "The players are on no timeline, and we take the issues and recertification process very seriously. We as players stand behind our legal team and will negotiate in the best interest of all players.

"The NFL players, at the time our call ended tonight, had not seen a copy of the current owners' proposal, which they addressed in their earlier press conference, so we were unable to look though the information or make any decisions.

"I believe we are somewhat surprised by the issues the NFL brought up today, as we were not previously aware of their agreements [such as their new revenue-sharing plan]."

Smith has to walk a fine line. His membership, like everyone else, has been convinced for a week that the lockout was ending. How hard can he push against that perception without engendering some sort of disaster? Last night's canceling of the Aug. 7 Hall of Fame game, which only affected the Rams, the Bears and some fans in Canton, Ohio, is one thing. Canceling the Aug. 11 slate of preseason games - which includes the Eagles facing the Ravens at the Linc - is another, a complication that could shave $200 million off the earnings that project into the new, $120.4 million salary cap.

"Everybody's getting the little butterflies in their stomach, getting ready for Lehigh," tight end Clay Harbor, a rookie last season, said yesterday at Power Train. "We're all ready to get there and get started . . . I know it's going to happen soon."

Eagles first-round rookie guard Danny Watkins who just drove up from Waco, Texas, with all his possessions and two golden retrievers, endured stepping into a wasp nest as he moved into his South Jersey home. "I wanted to get out here and just be ready to go when the phone rings," Watkins said. "The second that phone rings, I'm going to be calling [offensive line coach Howard Mudd] and asking him to meet me somewhere . . . I'm champing at the bit, itching, wanting to learn. I've got to learn the techniques and the offense. I want to contribute right away."

Presumably, the new rookie salary structure will make Watkins' contract easier to negotiate. He can meet with Mudd and so forth, once the CBA is ratified, but he will need to be under contract to report to Lehigh.

Watkins said missing training camp is "the last thing I want to be doing."

Defensive tackle Trevor Laws, who seems to have transformed his physique this offseason, was a little wary of declaring the lockout nearly over.

"I've heard anything from 2 days to 2 weeks," Laws said. "I don't think we're going to miss any regular-season games, for sure."

In suburban Atlanta last night, Eagles president Joe Banner told the team's website he felt a sense of accomplishment, regardless of the remaining uncertainty.

"I know it isn't done yet from an overall standpoint. But to get here is a good feeling," Banner said. "We'll see how the rest goes, and approach it with an optimistic outlook."

For more Eagles coverage and opinion, read the Daily News' Eagles blog, Eagletarian, at www.eagletarian.com.

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