Lawyers for NFL owners and the NFLPA spent Monday and Tuesday negotiating on behalf of the two sides involved in the league's labor dispute. Starting Wednesday, Roger Goodell, DeMaurice Smith and a bunch of owners and players will be in attendance.
While none of the central figures in this labor dispute attended the first two days of negotiations, progress was reportedly made.
Sessions the first two days of the week were productive, as the parties worked to close out language for necessary elements of a potential deal to end the lockout, which reached the four-month mark Tuesday. There were about 12 participants, including NFL outside counsel Bob Batterman and NFL Players Association outside counsel Jeffrey Kessler, in Tuesday's nine-hour-plus session.
Of course, the progress the lawyers made isn't that big of a deal. Getting the language in place for a deal to ultimately be completed is an important step, but only so much progress can be made without guys like Goodell and Smith.
The rest of the week is when the most important negotiations will take place. Time is running out to work through some of the main issues that exist if the NFL doesn't want any of the preseason to be affected, so the next few days will be crucial.