La Canfora: NFL hasn't given up hope on enacting new trade, IR rules for 2012

In May, the NFL owners passed proposals that would move the trade deadline from Week 6 to Week 8 and would tweak the injured-reserve list to allow teams to place one player on the list and then move him back to the active roster after Week 8.

Although both rules seem to make sense (the first could make the trade deadline more exciting for fans and the second could give teams greater flexibility when dealing with long-term injuries), those changes haven't been enacted for this season, because the NFLPA has declined to sign off on them.

According to CBSSports.com's Jason La Canfora, though, the NFL hasn't “given up hope” in implementing the new rules for this season.

“Given the frosty recent relations from the sides and their ongoing litigation, even changes that would seem to benefit both sides don't come easy,” La Canfora writes. “With issues like HGH testing still unresolved and the union seeking ways to find tradeoffs in order to curb commissioner discipline, this is a climate in which it appears there will need to be quid pro quo even on non-controversial matters.”

And even if the NFLPA doesn't have a problem with these new rules on their own merit, it's telling that there hasn't been much movement in actually approving those measures.

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