Daily Archives: June 29, 2011

One effect of the lockout this off season has been the NFL not being involved in the annual rookie symposium, leaving the NFLPA to organize it by themselves.

Goodell and Smith address the media side by side.

Despite not being involved, NFL commissioner Rodger Goodell accepted NFLPA President DeMaurice Smith’s invitation to speak to the rookies. After speaking to the incoming rookies, both Goodell and Smith talked to reporters.

““We obviously spoke to the rookie class here at the Business of Football Symposium.  We are not going to take questions but both of us wanted to come out and tell you that.   We’re continuing to work hard,” said Smith, according to NFLLabor.com. “Both of us felt that it was important to come down for this event.  Obviously, what we are doing on the business of football on a macro scale is about getting a fair deal done and trying to get back to the game and business of football as quickly as possible.  This event was important to ensure that our young men appreciated how important we think these few days are.  I’m thrilled that Roger could come down with us and talk to the rookies in a very good, direct way.”

Standing next to Smith, Goodell echoed that statement.

“It was a great opportunity for us to be able to sit with the rookies. They obviously have lots of questions,” said Goodell, once again courtesy of NFLLabor.com. “We answered the questions as best we could. But you all know that we’re under certain restrictions. We’re taking a break because we felt it was important to be down here with the players. We both have great respect, obviously, for the players. This is an important few days. We’re going to get back to work.”

With both sides honoring the agreement to not talk about the status of negotiations, it is up to the media to interpret each action. Goodell accepting Smith’s invitation, as well as them stepping out together to talk to the media, cannot be viewed as anything other then a very positive sign.

When Goodell and Smith first stepped out of a hotel in Washington over 100 days ago when the lockout began, they did not speak together- and spent the duration of there talk blasting each other. The fact the two men are now standing side by side talking about the importance of getting a deal done is a very important, visual statement that can be seen by everyone involved. Goodell doing Smith a “favor” by talking to the rookies is also a good sign.

With the Fourth of July weekend coming up, and the two sides engaged in the most intense talks yet, most NFL experts now feel a deal will get done without the pre-season being missed.

If it is not done, and the pre-season is missed, things will really start to get ugly. The owners will loose what is estimated by many to be close to 700 million dollars if the full preseason is missed. The owners are not going to loose that money without seeing the players suffer as well. They will sit and wait for the players union to collapse as game checks are missed. A stale mate like that will more then likely cause half the season to be missed, if not more.

The NFL and NFLPA still have a few weeks to negotiate before a scenario like that becomes reality.

But make no mistake about it- the two sides are entering a very important phase of negotiations, and the clock is ticking.