I predict a huge battle between the owners and NFLPA

I would not be surprised one bit to see a lockout or a strike no matter what the CBA says. In this era of Covid when governments feel they can force landlords to keep non-paying tenants in their units....indefinitely.... and receive no compensation for it, under an emergency declaration order, governments can just as easily suspend the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement under an emergency order.

My reading of what is happening so far is that the NFL players want to have their cake and eat it too.
Their take seems to be, too bad if all this is happening......to the owners and to the fans. But the players want not only to not play if they don't feel safe, they also want to be fully paid despite the devastating financial effects of Covid. And further, the financial hardships that strike the owners should not trickle down to the players.

This could be a far more serious matter than some think. These owners are wealthy businessmen and they will always think in terms of profit and loss. Anyone thinking that these owners suspend that thinking, or can pay for a team and its expenses with pocket change, is going to be surprised. One might say: would the Players Union really stand their ground so rigidly that it virtually destroys the league, forces teams to release big contract players as a means to make payroll for the other guys, and with other teams having no means to pick them up? And essentially make juicy contracts a thing of the past? Absolutely.

Younger people forget the battle in the 80's in the airline industry. Airlines were teetering on the edge. There was a lot of merger and consolidation going on. Unions were told that if they didn't accept some pay cuts, changes to retirement plans, and alterations to work schedules, that airlines would simply have no choice but to fold. The Unions held their ground. Airlines folded. Goodbye to airline icons like Eastern, Pan Am, and TWA. Thousands and thousands of airline employees literally voted themselves out into the streets and into the unemployment lines. Thousands of retired workers lost their pensions. A huge amount of them never worked in the industry again. All because they idealized the situation and thought they could separate themselves from sharing the pain of an entire industry.

Could the NFLPA do that, too? In this crazy social environment? You bet they could. If the owners thought it would be better to simply put the league into a deep freeze for a couple of years, try for bankruptcy protection, and then re-open under new circumstances..... maybe with no players union.....they have the means to do it. They didn't get where they are by being run by their emotions. The players and the Union is a whole other matter. Will history repeat? It could.