On Friday, mediation sessions between the NFL and the NFLPA ended and the two parties will take a break from talks until Tuesday, but it appears that this is not a terrible thing. It is being reported that both sides are "serious" about this set of negotiations and that both sides have been left with "homework" to do over the weekend.
We all hope that this is a good serious and not a bad serious. Based on the very small amount of information we are getting about talks (and technically we should be getting nothing, so kudos to NFL Network's Albert Breer), there seems to be some urgency on both sides to get an agreement before Judge Nelson makes her ruling on the antitrust suit.
I would guess that the owners want a deal rather than have the lockout lifted suddenly. Neither side I would imagine really wants to play next year under the same set of rules as 2010. Sure it would be an uncapped year, but players remain restricted free agents after four years, rather than becoming unrestricted. The owners want more of the revenue because they are supposedly making less money than they were when the old CBA was put into place.
The bad thing is that there are no talks until Tuesday. I wish they would just hammer things out, but if there are things that must happen beyond the meetings, I guess you have to take time off. My background as a teacher tells me this. You can't just give a kid a test and expect success if he or she has not done the homework and practice.
Hopefully this weekend is all about that and that they can get that "passing test grade" in the next week or two, because if the judge has to rule, then the appeals process with begin and the timetable for a new deal shrinks even more and puts the 2011 season even more at risk.