4th and Goal for NFL’s Labor Talks?
Thursday, July 07, 2011
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Union chief DeMaurice Smith are scheduled to meet in Manhattan today. It is a meeting that many close to the league’s labor talks agree could signify the beginning of the end of NFL labor strife.
While cautious optimism has been the feeling surrounding the negotiations in recent weeks, that “cautious” label has been dismissed for outright optimism and a feeling that the end of the lockout is near.
Many believe that July 15th is the drop-dead date for a deal to be consummated between the two sides before any effects would be felt on the upcoming season.
According to a report in the New York Post, any deal done after that date could affect the first week of preseason play which would result in a loss of as much as $200 million dollars for every week that is cancelled.
Those numbers, according to the Post, would increase exponentially should the lockout effect the regular season schedule.
The past couple of days in New York have featured attorneys for both sides hammering out the language for what would be a new deal with the only major thing yet to be decided being the exact percentages of the revenue split between the owners and the players.
While the two sides were extremely far apart on this issue a few months ago, sources close to the negotiations suggest that they are not far apart at all on those figures meaning a deal could be imminent.
If an agreement is reached soon, there would be a very short period for free agency which would include a flurry of signings throughout the league prior to training camps opening up in late July.
Both the St. Louis Rams and the Chicago Bears are scheduled to open their training camps on July 22nd making them the first teams to do so. The two teams are slated to meet in the annual Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio to kick off the 2011 preseason schedule on August7th.
Just about every other NFL team is slated to open their training camp the week after those two teams with a full schedule of preseason games scheduled for the second week in August.
While some believe that an agreement before the weekend may be a bit too optimistic, the feeling is that one could be consummated by this time next week.
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