could also eliminate the normal off week between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. Up to six weeks of the season could have been lost (moving week 3 games into the bye weeks, canceling weeks 2, 4, and 17, and moving weeks 1 and 5 to the end of the season while postponing the playoffs one week) while still keeping a generally fair schedule with five division games and eight non-division games. The league also had a plan for a longer lockout, which included an abbreviated eight-game season beginning in late November. Goodell had also stated that the league did not consider using replacement players. Other litigation On March 28, 2011, four former NFL players, including Hall of Fame defensive end Carl Eller, sued the NFL in hopes of joining current players in their antitrust fight against the league. The 44-page complaint filed in federal court in Minneapolis sought class-action status on behalf of all former players. The retirees wanted the NFL lockout lifted to ensure their pensions and health benefits remained funded. According to the lawsuit, those benefits would end if a collective bargaining agreement was not renewed by next March 11, a year after the last one expired. On July 5, 2011, a group of retired NFL players led by Carl Eller, Franco Harris, Marcus Allen and Paul Krause filed its own class-action lawsuit against both the NFL and NFLPA, stating that the renunciation of CBA rights disqualified the NFLPA from bargaining on the former NFL players' behalf. End of lockout These NFL owners announced on July 21, 2011 that they had approved a settlement of the players' antitrust litigation by a 31–0–1 margin (the Oakland Raiders abstained), but the players decided not to vote on the settlement because they did not approve all of the terms outlined in the proposal. After continued negotiations, the ten players named as plaintiffs in the Brady case approved the settlement on July 25, and the agreement became effective after ratification by a majority of the players in the NFL on August 4, 2011. Although the settlement was approved on July 25, the NFL didn't officially recognize the NFLPA’s status as the players’ collective bargaining representative until July 30, 2011. When NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith signed the agreement, the lockout officially ended. New CBA ESPN writer John Clayton notes that there were five major