NFL Lockout: Talks Will Continue Between Roger Goodell, DeMaurice Smith

What would no football in 2011 feel like?

I bet it would be sort of like waking up on Tuesday morning after the Fourth of July weekend. You don’t want to get out of bed and re-enter a world without a constant stream of fireworks. (OK, not exactly like that but you get the idea.)

The good news is that, for some folks in the know, football will likely be back in 2011. We can’t say that for sure but the two sides will get back together this week for more talks in an effort to end the lockout. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith will meet on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, along with their respective legal teams. On Thursday and Friday, owners and players will re-enter the room for more talks.

The goal, of course, is to come to a labor agreement and end the NFL lockout.

This week’s schedule will be similar to last week when Goodell and Smith met for a couple of days before other owners and players re-entered the room. There were bumps in the road last week with reports of the two sides still having difficulty figuring out how to split the money but it seems that there were a few positive breakthroughs in a midnight session on Thursday.

The deal isn’t done -- yet -- and it may not come at all. But the two sides are continuing to talk which is about all we can ask for at this point.