NFLPA, Owners Talking Again After 15-Hour Session
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) The labor negotiating teams led by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and players' association chief DeMaurice Smith were back for more talks Friday, following a 15-hour bargaining session that lasted until early morning.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan is overseeing the process and said the sides would resume negotiations about six hours after they ended the last one.
Smith was seen entering an office building for the talks at a law firm shortly before the start of the latest discussions. He was joined by staffers and players, including Jeff Saturday of the Indianapolis Colts and Brian Waters of the Kansas City Chiefs.
As they were Thursday, the owners were represented by Goodell, John Mara of the New York Giants, Clark Hunt of the Kansas City Chiefs, Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys and Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots.
Friday marks the fourth straight day of negotiations. The lockout began March 12, with the central issue being how to split revenues for the $9 billion business.
For weeks, owner and player representatives have been hopscotching around the country, holding unannounced meetings in spots ranging from Chicago to the Maryland shore.
This is the fifth set of such negotiations, and the week began with optimism as Smith and Goodell left the table to address incoming rookies at an orientation symposium in Florida on Wednesday morning.
But the situation has become murkier since.
A conference call with player representatives midway through Thursday's talks offered no news of a breakthrough. Some observers noted that since players don't get their regular paychecks until the regular season and revenue for the league revolves heavily around Sunday games, neither side appears to be up against a critical deadline -- yet.
Still, training camps start in about three weeks, with the preseason-opening Hall of Fame game scheduled Aug. 7 between the Bears and Cardinals.
There also is the wild card of a pending federal appeals court ruling in the players' antitrust suit against the league, which was filed in Minneapolis and prompted Boylan's involvement as a mediator. One judge has warned that neither side will like the 8th Circuit's decision on the legality of the lockout.
The latest talks come as the NBA began its own lockout after it failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement with its players. It is believed to be only the second time that two of the main leagues have been shut down simultaneously by labor problems. The NHL and MLB were idle from October 1994 through mid-January 1995.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
