NFL, NFLPA Apparently Forget Media Blackout During CBA Negotiations

Don’t hold your breath on a new CBA anytime soon as the negotiations between the NFL owners and NFL Players Association is going in the wrong direction. The deadline for a new deal comes Friday evening and it appears there are three options at this point: 1.) Get a new deal done or 2.) extend the current deal 3.) Decertification/Lockout.

The third option seems the most likely to be happening, especially after listening to NFL lead negotiator Jeff Pash on Thursday afternoon.

“If both sides have an equal commitment to getting this deal done, it will get done,” Pash said. “I don’t know if both sides have an equal commitment. You’ve heard plenty of what I’ve heard as well. If that’s the case, if both sides have that commitment, there’s a deal to be made.”

That should tell you where these two sides are in negotiations. NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith was less than pleased with those comments in an email to the AP:

“Jeff Pash was part of an executive team that sold the networks a $4 billion ticket to a game they knew wouldn’t be played. The only thing they’ve been committed to is a lockout.”

An NFLPA spokesman, George Atallah, joined in on the fun via Twitter:

“If owners continue to [question] players’ commitment to negotiations, we’re prepared [to] make public all our unanswered proposals.”

And the NFL’s spokesman, Greg Aiello:

“While George is at it, ask him when is union going to respond to our 150 pages of draft CBA provisions that they received eight days ago. Waiting.”

The best thing we can hope for is an extension. Still, even that seems unlikely. That said, we were in this same position last week before the two sides struck a deal on an extension. Deadlines have a way of changing the way people think so we’ll hold out some hope we’re not taking football to the courts.