The National Football League Players Association made it official this morning, announcing that the league and the players had agreed to a settlement agreement and a new CBA.

The news conference included NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith and league commissioner Roger Goodell standing together at the podium.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Goodell said. “Football is back and that’s the good news.”

Albert Breer of NFL.com has the full report here. The deal is for 10 years, with no opt-out.

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Multiple news outlets are reporting that the NFLPA has filed decertification papers in the courts, considered a precursor to allow individual players to file antitrust lawsuits and keep the league from moving to lockout players.

It’s been widely reported that Drew Brees, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning take the lead as players who would participate in such a filing.

This occurred about 15 minutes after NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith issued a short, prepared statement to reporters stating the following:

“How are you? We met with the owners until about 4 o’clock today. We discussed a proposal that they had

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ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that NFL owners and players have agreed to a seven-day extension of their talks toward a collective bargaining agreement, with the hope that a new agreement can be reached during that time frame.

Also, according to Schefter, as expected teams cannot do any roster transactions during that time.

And if you haven’t read Bill Simmons of ESPN’s column on the depths NFL owners will go to make money, you should. Definitely worth a read.

I thought I would provide an update on the NFL labor situation with all the information out there the past few hours.

Several media outlets are reporting that because of the positive movement in negotiations between the players and the owners, the league and the NFLPA have struck a deal on extending the moment at which the current CBA expires.

So this basically means it will be Groundhog Day tomorrow, with the CBA expiring at 9 p.m. Pacific time on Friday.

However, the extra day does provide time for the two sides to either work toward a new agreement, …

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Here’s a list of important dates for this NFL calendar year leading up to the beginning of the 2010 regular season.

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With the Chicago Bears recently firing pro personnel director Bobby DePaul, speculation has it that former Seahawks president Tim Ruskell could be headed to the Windy City as his replacement, according to this report from Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune.

The move would be a nice fit for Ruskell, who is good friends with current Chicago general manager Jerry Angelo from their time together in Tampa Bay. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com reports that according to a source Angelo and Ruskell have been talking daily.

Also, the Seahawks finished a respectable 11th overall in Rick Gosselin’s annual …

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If the Seattle Seahawks ultimately decide to part ways with GM Tim Ruskell at season’s end, they might have one less candidate available.

According to Tony Grossi of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, former Seahawks head coach Mike Holmgren met with Browns owner Randy Lerner on Tuesday about the possibility of becoming head of football operations for the Browns franchise.

According to Grossi, Hall of Fame running back and former Cleveland player Jim Brown told a crowd at a luncheon in Cleveland on Tuesday that Lerner was interviewing someone who could turn around the team’s bleak future.

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Well, it looks like Tacoma native Lawyer Milloy is coming home. Steve Wyche of NFL.com is reporting the Seattle Seahawks will sign Milloy and he will replace Brian Russell as the team’s starting safety, with Deon Grant likely moving over to free safety and Milloy playing strong safety.

As I said in an earlier post, this gives Seattle two, physical hitters from the safety position.