Absent an extension to the current CBA, which expires at midnight on Friday night, the most likely next step in the NFL lockout negotiations is decertification by the union. In a conference call on Friday, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith told the players that the plan (right now) is to decertify, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
NFLPA’s DeMaurice Tells Players Union Plans To Decertify, According To Report
We were waiting on a 2:00 p.m. update from Smith, who tweeted on Thursday that he’d have an update by then.
The one ray of hope is Schefter’s point that things can change. Deadlines have a funny way of affecting people, as we saw last week with the last minute decision to extend the CBA. The likely scenario, though, appears that we’re taking football to the courts.
This is what most folks are thinking now: the union will decertify and the owners will lock the players out at midnight. From there, we enter into more legalese where the union will hope to block a lockout. At this point, though, no one is quite sure exactly what each side will do.
Let’s hope deadlines do have a way of affecting people and we avoid taking football to the court system.
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