Deadlines Raising Stakes, Urgency For NFL Labor Talks
NFL owners and players may find themselves shifting to hurry-up mode as time gets tight to reach labor peace.
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NFL owners and players may find themselves shifting to hurry-up mode as time gets tight to reach labor peace.
Much of the CBA chatter over the holiday weekend focused on the fact that Jeffrey Kessler and Jim Quinn were potentially submarining positive momentum in the current CBA negotiations.
Lawyers for the NFL and the players' association are again sorting out contract language and details that could speed the process in reaching a new collective bargaining agreement.
After taking the holiday weekend off, lawyers for the owners and players reconvened Tuesday to continue negotiations toward a new collective bargaining agreement.
After taking the weekend off to celebrate our country's independence, the lawyers for the owners and players resumed talks today, but NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith aren't expected to be present for the negotiations until Thursday, according to ESPN's Chris Mortensen.
As the NFL owners and the NFLPA prepare to return to the negotiating table after the three-day weekend, it seems their lives are doomed to become more complicated.
While the NFL coaching staffs and team officials are prohibited from communicating with players during the lockout, it seems rather improbable to believe that there is no absolutely no contact between the two sides while their negotiators try to work out a new CBA.
The negotiating teams led by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and players' association chief DeMaurice Smith are back for more talks after a 15-hour bargaining session that lasted until the early hours of Friday morning.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith ended a 15-hour bargaining session early Friday, barely breaking for a quick nap before resuming in the morning.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and players' union chief DeMaurice Smith took questions Wednesday at a symposium for NFL rookies, who wanted to know the same thing as everyone else unhappy about the league's labor dispute.
The offseason is all about hope. Fans hope that their teams will finally make the playoffs. GMs and coaches hope that the guy they traded up for last April pans out.
Two people familiar with the situation tell the Associated Press that negotiating teams for NFL owners and players are in Minneapolis and expected to resume talks aimed at ending a lockout now in its fourth month.
There have been many signs that point to positive momentum from the NFL and the players for new football over the past week or so.
The lockout isn't over, and there's absolutely no guarantee that there will be a new CBA any time soon. But it sure does feel as if everyone's moving along on the same path toward football in 2011, doesn't it?
Donovan McNabb recently said that athletes should stay off of Twitter. There's some logic to his thought process (see: the Rashard Mendenhall-9/11 public relations nightmare that recently unfolded) but, ultimately, Twitter is fantastic because it allows athletes to interact with fans.
"We're definitely optimistic we're moving in the right direction," Wilson told the Associated Press on Saturday.
The owners and players aren't meeting face to face again until next week but that doesn't mean the negotiations have stopped.
The NFL meetings from Thursday wrapped up this afternoon and, somewhat surprisingly, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith appeared together, shook hands, and talked to the press about what went down.
Earlier this week, the owners met in Chicago so they could hear an update on the labor negotiations and so they could discuss where they were going in the near future.
To some young veterans and several agents, one of the most interesting elements to emerge from the owners' meeting in Chicago on Tuesday was the presumption that the proposed CBA agreement stipulates that the requirement for unrestricted free agency will return to four seasons of accrued service.
NFL owners and players are in the Boston area to resume negotiations toward a new collective bargaining agreement, a person with knowledge of the talks is telling the Associated Press.
It is, as Indianapolis owner Jim Irsay said before Tuesday's meetings, "the season to make a deal." And so the NFL and its players should reach a labor agreement soon -- presumably, within the next few weeks -- that will save the season.
NFL owners are behind locked doors for their scheduled meeting Tuesday, and they're not talking about staying overnight.
One day of owners' meetings could turn into two. Whether that's a sign of progress toward the end of the lockout and labor peace is debatable.
NFL owners will meet Tuesday, and perhaps into Wednesday, to discuss the status of negotiations with the players aimed at ending the lockout now in its fourth month.
