The National Football League Players Association, or NFLPA, is the trade association of players in football's National Football League, and was the players' labor union before decertifying. It was founded in 1956, but only achieved recognition and a collective bargaining agreement in 1968. After a lost strike in 1987, the union was formally decertified, converting into a professional association in order to pursue antitrust litigation designed to win free agency for its members. When that tactic worked it reformed as a union and resumed collective bargaining with the league in 1993. On July 25th, 2011 the NFL and NFLPA came to an agreement on a new 10 year CBA thus rendering the recertification of the union.