Gridiron lockout talks to resume Tuesday
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — National Football League club owners and players broke off talks for the US Independence Day holiday weekend on Friday, the 108th day of a lockout that threatens the…
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — National Football League club owners and players broke off talks for the US Independence Day holiday weekend on Friday, the 108th day of a lockout that threatens the 2011 season.A 15-hour negotiating session ended early Friday and a shorter set of talks was staged Friday before NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and players chief negotiator DeMaurice Smith called off talks until Tuesday in New York.The delay means no deal will be done by the July 4 holiday, the date some on both sides have said would be critical to having a deal in place in time to stage the mid-July start of training camps as normal.Billionaire club owners and multi-millionaire players have been unable to agree upon how to divide $9.3 billion in annual revenues from the most popular American spectator sport, instead creating the first NFL shutdown since 1987.After months with relatively little financial loss for either side, the deadlock is on the verge of threatening the start of pre-season games, set for August 7 between Chicago and St. Louis in Canton, Ohio.Reigning Super Bowl champion Green Bay is set to host New Orleans in the NFL season opener on September 8.But the lockout has not allowed players to train at team facilities or work with coaches on offensive plans or defensive schemes. Clubs have been unable to sign free agents, make trade deals, sign draft picks to contracts or make any of the usual preparations for a campaign.The NFL is no longer the only American sports league to have locked out its players. The NBA imposed a lockout of its own Friday morning after failing to reach a collective bargaining agreement with its players union.NFL players decertified their union in order to file an anti-trust lawsuit against the league. The players briefly won a legal halt to the lockout but the NFL quickly won an appeal to have the lockout upheld.The only other time in American sports when two leagues were locked out came in late 1994 and early 1995 when the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball were s
last modification 2011-07-01 22:16:19
Add comment