Indianapolis Host Committee Plans For Lockout Postponed Super Bowl

Yes, rest assured, fans: Hotel rooms have been set aside for Feb. 5 and Feb. 12 — just in case.

See, don’t you feel all better now?

NFL VP Jeff Pash appeared on ESPN’s Mike and Mike show one day after NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith appeared on the same show talking about the labor issues in the NFL. We’ve detailed some of the union’s perspective on these topics which can be read here.

Here are a few topics Pash addressed in his segment on Mike and Mike.

On Tuesday a few SB Nation bloggers talked with reps from the NFL Player’s Association, including Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, learning more about their message, which has become particularly important (and public) as the clock continues to tick on the current labor agreement.

One of the biggest “myths” the NFLPA talked about was that the players received 60% of the total revenue. The 60% number is the one you hear most often thrown about as the players’ piece of the total pie.

The Packers are a publicly owned franchise which means, by law, they must issue a financial report at the end of their fiscal year.

Why is this important?

Earlier this week NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell called the implementation of a rookie salary cap a “critical” part of the CBA negotiations with the NFLPA.

From the NFLPA perspective, they would argue that it’s the team’s decision to pay this money -- not the players. They would also point out that first round picks are guaranteed an average of $11 million. The other picks are hardly that lucrative. Second round picks are guaranteed an average of $2 million and all other picks are guaranteed a max of $668,000.

NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith told Alex Marvez of FOXSports.com that he’s seeking to negotiate a new CBA that runs for six years through the 2016 season.

Currently, the CBA is set to expire in March of 2011.

Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke at the NFL’s rookie symposium this week and reiterated his desire for a rookie salary cap.

It’s a strange place to bring this topic up because the rookies are the only ones who benefit from such a windfall of money at the top of the draft.

NFL and NFLPA officials met today for another negotiation session regarding the new CBA. They also discussed the possibility of expanding the NFL regular season to 18 games.

From the NFL’s perspective, there are several key ideas to take out of this: any changes wouldn’t be adopted until 2012; NFL would consider reducing the preseason games; roster sizes could be expanded and injured reserve rules could be tweaked; extra bye week could be added; developmental league could be added.

A couple of weeks ago in our interview with NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith, he told us that the union would be meeting with the league at some point in June.

Liz Mullen of the Sports Business Journal (via PFT) reports that meeting will take place Wednesday.

When the NFL entered the uncapped year, some thought owners like Jerry Jones of the Cowboys and Daniel Snyder of the Redskins would go crazy spending millions upon millions of dollars. Even with a salary cap they had shown a willingness to spend more than anyone else.

More than three months into the uncapped year and that hasn’t happened. In fact, spending is down significantly.

Peyton Manning is just one man but his contract could help us understand the future of the NFL as we know it. Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports has an interesting article that details why the Manning contract -- he’s entering his final year -- could determine future negotiations between the league and the players regarding a new CBA.

The point is essentially that if Manning -- about as perfect of a player as they come -- can’t set a new bar in terms of money per year, then the owners flat-out won’t be spending enough money, which would cause the players to dig in their heels at the negotiating table.

We know the players aren’t happy since many of them are restricted free agents and unable to land a big payday. Now, we’re starting to hear the player agents aren’t happy either.

At some point, you’re going to hear the NFLPA talk about collusion.They could say the owners have acted collectively to bring down spending, which would be illegal.

The NFLPA has trained what seems like everyone to understand that the NFL will be locking out the players. If you look at the NFLPA website, it even says “Lockout Watch” at the very top.

But can you blame them? The NFL has taken steps to give the perception that they are in lockout preparations -- doing the TV deals to guarantee payment in 2011 even in the absence of football, writing coaches contracts with protection from a work stoppage, hiring the NHL “lockout lawyer”, the American Needle case and hiring Troy Vincent, former NFLPA president.

DeMaurice Smith and NFLPA counsel Jeffrey Kessler held a conference call on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the NFLPA’s recent complaint to the Special Master regarding the NFL’s TV contracts.

Smith set the tone from the start explaining the complaint from the union’s perspective.

On Wednesday, the NFLPA announced that it had filed a complaint with the Special Master regarding the NFL’s TV contracts.

The NFL has issued a response to the NFLPA’s complaint:

The NFL Player’s Association has filed a complaint with the NFL’s Special Master regarding the NFL’s television deals.

The NFL has negotiated their TV deals so that in the event there’s no football in 2011, they would still be paid that money. It’s not exactly “free” as the NFL’s side would argue that they have to pay that money back in future years when football returns.

Just how important is pro football in Louisiana? Important enough to get the House and Senate to step in and encourage both sides to get a deal done.

The House resolution states:

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell spoke with reporters following Tuesday’s owners meetings. On the topic of the status of labor negotiations,

The two key points out of that short paragraph are that the two sides are having a dialogue and a formal session will be in June.

Back at the NFL Draft, Chad Ochocinco asked NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith on a scale of 1-10 what the chances of a lockout were. At the time, he said it was a 14.

A month later and not much has changed. Smith told SI.com in a recent interview that the likelihood of a lockout was again a 14 on a 1-10 scale.