NFL Labor Talks To Continue Next Week
Added on Jul 02, 2011 by Jack Thurman in
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The NFL lockout remains in place and the labor dispute remains unsettled but hopeful signs continue to emerge from the negotiations. After several hours of meetings on Friday morning representatives for NFL players and owners headed hope for the holiday weekend. The two sides have confirmed that they’ll rejoin the negotiations on Tuesday with hopes of quickly reaching a resolution to the longest work stoppage in NFL history.
Friday’s short session followed a marathon 15 hour bargaining session on Thursday that stretched to well after midnight. Sources suggest that the talks will reconvene in New York City, though nothing official can be confirmed since U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan has ordered both sides to keep details of the negotiations confidential.
Not surprisingly given the legal dictum against disclosure neither side had much to say. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith both looked to be in good spirits as they headed to the airport though had little comment. Smith said simply:
“We’ll continue to meet next week, and the goal is to get a deal done.”
Goodell said nothing, but the league’s lead negotiator Jeff Pash said:
“We’ll be back at it again next week.”
The mood of the negotiations is still generally positive, but time is becoming an issue as the process continues to drag on without a deal. Training camps are scheduled to start in approximately three weeks and the preseason Hall of Fame Game will be just over a month away when the two sides resume negotiations on Tuesday. The St. Louis Rams and Chicago Bears are scheduled to play in that contest on August 7 in Canton, Ohio. The regular season could start on time with a shorter preseason, but even a cancelled exhibition game or two would cost NFL owners a significant amount of money.
The primary bone of contention at this point is revenue sharing. There are other items on the agenda as well but the prevailing theory is that once the revenue split is settled that the rest of the disputed items would get resolved quickly leading to a final agreement.
