- The NFL and NFLPA wrapped up seven straight days of negotiations on Thursday (the two sides will get back together on Tuesday). The meetings were mediated by George H. Cohen, who had this to say about the week of negotiations: "Our time together has been devoted to establishing an atmosphere conducive to meaningful negotiations and, of course, matters of process and substance. I can report that throughout this extensive period, the parties engaged in a highly focused, constructive dialogue concerning a host of issues covering both the economics and player-related conditions.
"The tenor of across-the-board discussions reflected a noteworthy level of mutual respect even in the face of strongly held competing positions.
"Some progress was made, but very strong differences remain on the all-important core issues." - NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith met with agents at the NFL Scouting Combine on Friday. One of the agents at the meeting sent a text to Adam Schefter that said things were "not close on one single issue" and that "this WILL go into September."
- According to ESPN, the NFLPA is planning to decertify prior to the expiration of the CBA at 11:59 p.m. on March 3. Doing this would prevent NFL owners from locking out players and would essentially turn this mess into a legal battle in court for the coming few months.
- For what it's worth, Martin Mayhew had this to say about the labor situation: "There will be football this fall. We will play when there is football and up until then and into that process we’ll just rely on the league’s direction as far as all our policies, procedures, dealing with players, all of those things. We’ll take direction from the league office on that."
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