I'd like to start by asking a serious question: What's the deal with all these lockouts?
Think about it for a second. Baseball went on strike in 1994. The NBA closed up for 32 games in 1998-99. The NHL was locked out and lost their entire season in 04-05. Fast forward to today, where the NFL and NBA are in concurrent lockouts. That's right. The only winter sport proceeding normally is... the NHL.
But that's all four major sports closed for business in the span of seventeen years, including the sport that, until this year, had the longest stretch of labor-unrest-free football. And now we have PFT's Mike Florio telling us what'll happen when a settlement is exhaustingly, relievedly, painstakingly, and finally agreed upon. And it leads to the actual business of football starting around a week after settlement date.
Before the settlement would be official as a new CBA, three things would have to happen. First, the settlement would have to be signed off on by both parties - it wouldn't be a settlement if they didn't agree with it. This means 75% of the owners, and the "twelve angry men" - er, "ten named plantiffs" would need to agree on the resolution of their class action suit.
Second, the NFLPA would likely have to be put back together after its decertification. With the union in place, the settlement becomes the new CBA.
Third, Judge Susan Nelson would need to approve the settlement of the class action.
Personally, I'd just like to grab Robbie Gould after singing the 7th Inning Stretch and have him announce "We are going to play football" to the waiting crowd. Forget signatures, that's my way to announce a done deal.