The NFL remains in limbo.

On Thursday afternoon, the owners signed off on a new collective bargaining agreement, but late Thursday night, the players wouldn’t agree to the proposal, ultimately extending the longest work stoppage in the history of the league by at least one more day.

Things started optimistically enough. After a day of meetings in Atlanta — and after it was reported that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA chief DeMaurice Smith had spoken in an extended phone call later in the afternoon — the owners ratified a new collective bargaining agreement by a 31-0 margin. That sense of optimism appeared to grow after it was learned that Smith and the rest of the player reps had scheduled an 8 p.m. conference call.

“I think we’ve crafted a long-term agreement that can be good for the game of football,” Goodell after the agreement was ratified. “It’ll be good for the players, good for the clubs, and most importantly good for our game and for our fans. We really are anxious to get back to football. Hopefully today’s development and the developments of the NFLPA over the next few days will ensure that.

“Hopefully, we can all work quickly, expeditiously, to get this agreement done,” Goodell added. “It is time to get back to football. That’s what everybody here wants to do.”

The proposed CBA that was approved by the owners included the following highlights:

• The deal would last 10 years, and there would be no opt out for either side.

• The offseason training program would be reduced by five weeks, and the number of OTA’s would decrease from 14 to 10.

• Unrestricted free agency for players after four accrued seasons; restricted free agency for players with three accrued seasons.

• Salary cap plus benefits of $142.4 million per club in 2011 ($120.375 million for salary and bonus) and at least that amount in 2012 and 2013.

• League-wide commitment to cash spending of 99 percent of the cap in 2011 and 2012. For the 2013-20 seasons, the clubs collectively will commit to cash spending of at least 95 percent of the cap.

• In addition, all teams will have approximately $3.5 million in what would otherwise be performance-based pay available to fund veteran player salaries.

“I can’t say we got everything we wanted to get in the deal,” Giants owner John Mara told reporters. “I’m sure [players] would say the same thing. ... The best thing about it is our fans don’t have to hear about labor-management relations for another 10 years.”

Goodell said that the league would have to cancel the Hall of Fame Game — the preseason opener is scheduled for Aug. 7 in Canton, Ohio. However, he did indicate teams would be prepared to open the training facilities beginning on Saturday, with the new league year starting next Wednesday, including the start of free agency.

However, after Goodell made his announcement in Atlanta, Smith quickly issued an e-mail via the NFLPA offices in Washington saying that several of the points in the deal that was ratified by the owners remained open in the eyes of the players.

“As you know the Owners have ratified their proposal to settle our differences,” Smith wrote. “Issues that need to be collectively bargained remain open, other issues such as workers compensation, economic issues and end of deal terms remain unresolved. There is no agreement between the NFL and the Players at this time. I look forward to our call tonight.”

On that call, the players decided not to vote on the deal, with several players taking to Twitter to lambaste the owners for trying to push through a deal that they didn’t have a chance to read thoroughly, with some players claiming that the owners had tried to sneak things into the agreement.

“The owners tried [to] slip many things [into] the CBA ‘they’ voted on that were NEVER agreed [to]!” wrote New Orleans fullback Heath Evans.

“How can we hold a vote on something that we haven’t seen the finished product of?” Buffalo Bills player rep George Wilson told The Associated Press. “Ultimately, the guys felt like this thing is being force-fed to us; that it’s being shoved down our throats.”

One of the major sticking points that appears to remain between the two sides is recertification. The NFLPA officially decertified in March, a move that allowed the players to sue the league under antitrust law. But only a union can sign off on a CBA. Now that the union is trying to recertify, there are questions about how long that process can take and what exactly it involves.

Smith hinted Thursday that recertification is not a process that should be taken lightly.

“Every individual person has to make a decision about whether they want to be part of a union,” Smith said in a statement to the media on Thursday. “The individual decision is something that our players take extremely serious[ly].

“I know there are a lot of things swirling out there, and I certainly remember comments from some of the owners about how we might not even be like a real union. Well, guess what? The decision to decertify was important, because at the time we were a real union, and the decision for our players as men to come back as a union is going to be an equally serious and very sober one that they have to make.”