If you were one of those like us who hoped to hear the news Friday that the lockout was over, you were disappointed as little was accomplished and the parties are gone from the table for the weekend, going into next week’s talks that are sure to be the deadline for not missing any preseason action.
Next weeks talks are actually critical, because after next week its almost for sure that games will be lost for the preseason. The estimate is 1 Billion dollars if the preseason as we know it is lost. Players dispute that number, but it cant be off by much. Once games are missed, then the numbers they have been negotiating will change, and could throw any work that has been accomplished into chaos.
The news also came down during the meetings of the ruling from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, which overturned US District Judge Susan Richard Nelson’s April decision to institute an injection to lift the lockout. Even though this decision allowed the lockout to stay in place, the players were given leverage as well, and NFLPA, or whats left of them, found many things to be happy about in the ruling. (con’t)
For starters, the court allowed the players’ antitrust litigation to move on, which means the owners are looking at triple damages if ruled against. Anti Trust violation parallel collusion rulings, which automatically triple any judges rulings. If a judge rules the NFL owes 1 Billion dollars to the Brady group, the actual amount would be 3 billion dollars.
Secondly, the court declined to rule on the legality of the owners locking out UNSIGNED players, rookies and unrestricted free agents. This could cause major problems for the league at some point. It’s in everyone’s best interest to figure something out next week.
Next Friday has been seen generally as the deadline to get a deal done. The Chicago Bears and St. Louis Rams are scheduled to appear in the Hall Of Fame game on August 7th, and their training camp is supposed to open July 22nd, only one week from Friday coming up. That would leave ONE WEEK for free agency.
Friday, in many peoples eyes, is too late.
Source: Albert Breer, NFL Network reporter.
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