Goodell and Smith sign new agreement in historic setting

NEW YORK (Reuters) - National Football League (NFL) Commissioner Roger Goodell and Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith used a table on the steps of the Pro Football Hall of Fame to finalize their new 10-year collective bargaining agreement on Friday.

Beaming at times and cheered on by fans, the pair signed the ground-breaking deal in Canton, Ohio a day after players had ratified it.

The agreement will provide owners with a larger share of the NFL's $9 billion in annual revenue, offer new safety standards for players, create a rookie salary cap and increase benefits for retirees.

It will also, eventually, make the NFL the first major U.S. professional sports league to use blood testing for human growth hormone.

A fan shouted, "Thank you!" as Goodell and Smith emerged from the Hall of Fame to sign the agreement.

"You're more than welcome," Smith responded.

The significance of the setting was not lost on Goodell.

"Any football fan knows how important the steps of the Hall of Fame are," the commissioner said. "They are even more important now that this agreement was signed here."

Sunday's Hall of Fame Game between the Chicago Bears and St. Louis Rams was the only major casualty of the four-month lockout of the league's players as the two sides struggled to reach the new deal.

Saturday's Hall of Fame enshrinement of former players Richard Dent, Marshall Faulk, Chris Hanburger, Les Richter, Deion Sanders and Shannon Sharpe will go on as scheduled.

"We just ran out of time," Goodell said in expressing disappointment the game was canceled. "But now football is back, and that is what we all wanted."

(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Raleigh, North Carolina; Editing by Julian Linden)