This post was written by Jared A Quan

As fans we cheered when the lockout ended. After being threatened with the possibility of no NFL season we watched preseason games forgetting the drama that had passed. It isn’t difficult for us to wash away not look back at the lockout as we watched the first games of the season.

However there was one piece of business that was bound to reemerge despite the agreements. September 13, 2011, twenty-eight retired NFL players file federal papers against NFLPA, Tom Brady, and Mike Vrabel, as reported by ESPN. This isn’t a big surprised as retired payers had previously expressed their disappointment in the NFLPA during the lockout, for both the lack of representation and bargaining on their behalf. The lockout directly affected retired players, as the CBA would cover topics like health care and retirement funds. Some points of the CBA still had to be worked out after the general agreement was signed by both sides. This was evident by the late appearance of free agents in camp, like Alex Smith. The only question is why did the retired players wait until now to file the lawsuit? It is ironic that Tom Brady is coming of a fantastic performance, against the Dolphins. I doubt it will take long for us to discover more details concerning the lawsuit, however I wouldn’t be surprised if the NFLPA doesn’t try to quickly sweep this under the rug with a settlement of some sort, to avoid any bad press.

After four months of wrangling and placing the blame of the NFL lockout on each other, the owners and players finally came to an agreement today ending the 132-day lockout.  Let the Jim Harbaugh Era officially begin!  It has been tough to get excited about Harbaugh taking over as head coach for the 49ers.  The first two months after he was hired the NFL lockout began and even though we have heard and seen interviews with Harbaugh and his vision for the 49ers we could not see it emerge because of the lockout.  Normally by this time in the 2011 off-season we would have seen organized team activities and mini-camps to get a glimpse of the offense and defense being installed and how 49ers rookies were sizing up.  Now the season is ready to start.  Details are still coming out about the timeline of events that will unfold this week.  In one week NFL fans will see veteran free agents, draft picks and rookie free agents signings along with trades and the start of training camp.  If you missed off-season football you will have everything condensed into one hell of a week.

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“We can’t be forced into a deal, period.  It will take time to review the proposal”, Spikes said on Sports Center.

What seemed like a done deal now looks nowhere near being completed.  The players feel the owners are making a power grab and are placing them into a bad position to force them to accept a bad deal.  This whole week I have been checking the news throughout the day to hear word of the lockout officially being over.  At the beginning of the week I was more optimistic of the 2011 NFL season starting this week, now at the end of the week it seems like the lockout will continue until who knows when.  When asked if Spikes expects a vote to happen on Friday he responded, “A vote will happen when a fair deal is reached.”  Not exactly an encouraging statement by the 49ers player representative.