Depending on what
you read and who you believe, there seems to be progress in the NFL labor talks.
With an agreement needed by the 14th of July for a full season
schedule to take place time is not on everyone's side. So where are we?
Face-to-face
meetings this week between the owners and players association, has resulted in
an air of optimism where none existed before. Terms like fragile and delicate
are still being used to describe the debate over a new collective bargaining
agreement but it’s believed that the gap has closed between the two sides. The
court of public opinion also believes it’s the owners who need to move closer
to the players. But in order to accomplish that the owners need to agree among
themselves before presenting an offer to the NFLPA.
A big part of the
problem lies within a few hardline owners like Jerry Richardson of Carolina who
believe the players got too good of a deal in 2006 and are fervent in their
desire not to repeat that mistake again even if it means losing millions this
season. Up to this point it’s been the Richardson’s of the league who have held
up any real progress in at least presenting an offer to the union. Unless that
attitude changes the lockout which is already the longest in league history, will
continue.
Barry Willner of AP who
covers the NFL says “NFLPA told one player that
progress is being made “but there’s still maybe two weeks to go” before a
settlement is likely. The player also spoke on condition of anonymity because he
is not authorized to speak for the players association.
“There’s a lot of work to be
done,” Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said at those meetings. “It
can be done it’s something we have to keep working at. The owners and players are
meeting more often, four times in four weeks, and with more urgency and at
least appear to be united in their desire not to return to court.”
The owners’ lockout
of the players began March 12 and passed the 100-day mark over the weekend. But
it’s the next few weeks that will really matter. If the NFL is to avoid doing
harm to the 2011 season then a settlement needs to happen within the next two
or three weeks at the latest. This next 21-day stretch will tell us if the
entire season will be played or if we’re looking at shortened campaign. As one
NFL general manager put it “The shorter the training camp, the shorter the
preseason. The more camp time that is missed, the worse the damage will be”. So just when will this NFL lockout end?
Realistically the
players wouldn’t care if the entire exhibition
season were lost. But the key is practice time. A rush to start the 2011
campaign on time without the proper amount of training will lead to an inferior
product not to mention increasing the likelihood of more injuries than ever in
the league.
If you’re not
drawing a check from the NFL and if you don’t own a team all of the issues are
hard to dissect. All fans really care about is when will the season start.
That’s it in a nutshell. Training camps are scheduled to open in late July and
there’s still that little sliver of hope it could happen.
It might be too
early yet to place your football wagers for
week one of the preseason in August but there is still a chance it could happen.
Only time will
tell. But we’re out at the two-minute warning and the owners and players need
to “hurry up” if this is to be an asterisk free NFL season.
Yahoo Sports contributed to this NFL labor update.