On Wednesday night a report came out that several influential owners including the Patriots' Robert Kraft, Cowboys' Jerry Jones and Panthers' Jerry Richardson met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell outside Chicago. The news was interesting but it was hard to speculate on what exactly it was all about -- besides labor, of course.
NFL Lockout: Roger Goodell, DeMaurice Smith Meet Secretly In Chicago
As it turns out, the meeting in Chicago had another participant -- the NFLPA’s DeMaurice Smith. This coming from ESPN’s Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter, who report officials from the NFLPA were present as well as Goodell and the owners.
Per Schefter, the two sides made “some progress” in the talks and, in a perfect world, would have an agreement by the end of this month.
This was a face-to-face meeting between the leaders of both organizations only two days before the sides will present their case to the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. At that court date, a panel of three judges will determine whether the lockout remains in place or if it’s lifted.
Obviously, this meeting can mean a lot of things. But, as I’ve said consistently throughout this process, it’s better to have the two sides communicating regularly than not talking at all so I’ll take this as a positive sign for what’s coming up next.
The NFL and NFLPA haven’t commented on the report.
We shall see what this meeting was all about.
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