Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

After two days, parties are “serious” about negotiations

NFL And Players Resume Court Ordered Mediation

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - APRIL 15: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (C), NFL owners Jerry Richardson of the Carolina Panthers (L) and Robert Kraft of the Patriots leave court ordered mediation at the U.S. Courthouse on April 15, 2011 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mediation was ordered after a hearing on an antitrust lawsuit filed by NFL players against the NFL owners when labor talks between the two broke down last month. (Photo by Hannah Foslien /Getty Images)

Getty Images

During the opening segment of Friday’s PFT Live, I expressed hope that court-ordered mediation of the labor dispute will continue on Saturday and Sunday and every day until a deal is reached or impasse is declared.

Unfortunately, two days of talks will be followed by three days of no talks.

But there’s still hope. Albert Breer of NFL Network reports that the parties are “serious” about the negotiations -- and about the consequences that could follow.

And it’s not as if the parties will be playing frolf or watching the entire Rocky series on Blu-ray. The lawyer representing the Eller class told Breer that Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan gave the parties “homework.”

It’s too early to tell whether any of this is good news. But since they’re still talking, it’s not bad news.

That said, it would be better news if the talks were continuing through the weekend.