The current labor situation with the NFL, NFLPA and the future of the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement has been discussed ad nauseum over the last year. There’s the 18-game schedule, benefits for retired players, the split of revenue and dozens of other negotiating points that are being discussed.
NFL Lockout: An Optimistic And Pessimistic View A Deal Gets Done
Throwing all the details out the window, NFL fans simply want to know whether there will be football next year. More specifically, they want to know when a deal will get done. The deadline -- whether it’s a hard one or a soft one -- is currently March 3, the final day of the current CBA.
It seems that most NFL folks are pessimistic a deal will get done. This pessimism was explained well by Peter King of SI.com on Monday morning:
Sports negotiations are deadline deals filled with both sides shooting at each other. The March 3 deadline is fairly meaningless, when you think about it. What happens in March that's vital to the regular season? Think of that word -- vital. Nothing. Is free agency vital to a season? No.
Free agency is an important point because it will not start on March 4 like it normally would if the CBA weren’t expiring. King’s point is that March 3 is more of a “soft deadline”, both the NFL and NFLPA realize that, and the sides aren’t likely to get serious until later in the summer.
There is, though, some optimism that something gets done by March 3. Andrew Brandt, former NFL executive with the Packers and current NFL writer with National Football Post, sees a ray of light in the labor situation.
I may be alone here, but I am still optimistic a deal can be done here: three weeks is an eternity in the negotiating process. I still choose not to believe the gloom and doom, despite how much pessimism there bay be.
He doesn’t have many concrete examples for his optimism other than the league and union’s meetings the Saturday before the Super Bowl, which included most of the heavy hitters involved. His point is that a meeting like that, with many of the significant players involved, may stir the pot to get a deal done.
That we have two prominent media folks on the opposite sides of the spectrum here shows that none of us can really predict what will happen. I do know one thing -- the fans just want to see football in 2011.
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