What's the latest talk on the CBA in the NFL?
As of this time, I have been hearing the two sides seem to be a little more serious, mostly due to a ruling by Judge Doty in Minnesota. "Judge Doty" sounds like another TV show to me, but anyway, he ruled that the TV contract for this coming year will not go to the owners. "So what?" you may ask. Well, the money the owners were to get from that contract will not be able to be used to extend the lockout if there is one with TV revenues. In other words, the owners must shoulder the burden of no money coming in and pay the price from a lockout from their own pockets. They can afford to do that if they would like, but taking that money away makes things more interesting.
For one thing, this is the same Judge Doty that will oversee a law suit if the players decide to bring a suit. He is the same Judge that allowed free agency 20 years ago, and now he has blocked the TV revenues from being used by the owners(which they were counting on). So, the owners track record with Judge Doty is not good.
The CBA getting signed is all about leverage, and the owners are losing that leverage, and that leverage is not so much on the money side because, as I said, they can afford the lockout. What they can't afford is not having the leverage to force the union to cave in to what they want. Because of Judge Doty and the threat of a law suit from the union(which they always lose in Judge Doty court room) the owners are now in a bad spot.
The NFL owners committee is sitting in on the talks this morning, and they are having an owners meeting at 3 eastern this afternoon. From what I know, that is a first since the NFL and the NFLPA have began these meeting 8 days ago. There is also talk floating around about extending the CBA deadline past Thursday night(currently just a rumor).
That is where things stand right now from my vantage point.
For us the FANS, all of this is good news. In the interest of starting a conversation, what side do you guys stand on? The Players or the Owners?
