Deal or No Deal?

Where does that leave things?

To put it simply, the ball is in their court, now. For all of these months, the owners have been the villains. Now, at one minute to midnight, the players are suddenly finding themselves wearing the black hats.

As per our colleagues as CNN:

The proposed agreement includes a new rookie compensation system, a salary cap of $142.4 million per club in 2011 and additional retirement benefits, according to the NFL.

Lets' hope we get something concrete today, or games will be missed. The owners will almost surely pass their end. They are said to have the 24 votes to move forward, but the players have issues with their end now. (..more)

According to Cork Gaines of Business Insider, the $120 million proposed salary cap may be lower this year in compared to years past, but overall its taken on a life of its own:

I some of you love the lockout, just like the Robert Duvall character in Apocalypse Now loved the war ("Someday this war's gonna end.." he said tearily).

But its over, so let's move on.

Already? Wow, that went by fast....

A deal could be done by Thursday and we could possibly have the free agency "supermarket sweep" by next week at this time. We personally cannot wait to see what that looks like.

Despite the growing optimism in the past few days, I don't think most people were expecting the kind of progress that we've seen today.

Momentum increased exponentially today when Ravens CB Domonique Foxworth revealed to the owners that the players had a secret fund that would pay each of them $200,000 this season. ?This new information, as one observer put it, got the owners' attention.

An agreement on a rookie wage scale has been cleared and the rest of the negotiations should conclude within the next few days. We're hearing the deal will be ratified by the owners at their meeting next Thursday in Atlanta.

From FOX Sports:

Classify it anyway you want, but the current NFL labor situation is causing many of us pain and discomfort like the aforementioned items.

The players and the media are beginning to lose their proverbial (insert you own word here) the past week. Players are doing and saying things that no one should ever have to hear and the media is churning it out like Nike churns out (insert your own word here).

That is about a week later than the league's drop-dead date of July 15th, the date most agreed was the latest in order to get the season started on time. This gives teams - especially the Rams and Bears ?- a very short window to prepare for the season. The two are scheduled to meet in the Hall of Fame game on August 7th.

Is Greg Jones too small to play in the NFL? Not according to the Giants. They believe the 5'11 rookie out of Michigan State will compete for a roster spot and perhaps even win the MLB job someday.

Other people familiar with the talks now think an agreement in principle will be put in place in the next seven to 10 days, a handshake deal that would allow each side to ratify the deal to start the 2011 season.

He stated that negotiations Wednesday and Thursday will be the most telling days on whether an agreement indeed will be finalized within the July 21 time frame because "we've basically reached the limits of compromise."

As my peer Charles Costello previously stated, the end to the lockout seems to be on the horizon.

According to an article released earlier today by Todd Porter of Cantonrep.com all signs point towards the annual Hall of Fame game being played on August 7th. So far that is the clearest sign that the lockout may be coming to an end.

According to FOX Sports' Jay Glazer, the two sides are chasms apart on may key issues, including free-agent eligibility requirements - a point that was said to be agreed upon last week.

However, Glazer still believes the deal will get done and no games will be missed.

For those of you who don't have HBO and missed the Tiki piece.... CLICK HERE

The NFL Lockout officially surpassed the 100 day mark this morning. It's beginning to hurt, I must admit.

Some stories for you to chew on in the interim.....

<a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/video?vid=67535746-ea00-4b13-9f90-6a1ece2a98ca" target="_new" title="">Canty gets candid on lockout</a>

I guess we''ll have to wait outside for the white smoke to appear in order to know if an agreement has been reached.

In a joint statement released by the owners and players yesterday, the two sides have decided to keep any reports of progress on the down low.

Former Giants DE and Ring of Honor inductee George Martin was a key figure on the team's 1986 Super Bowl championship roster. ?He was front and center during the pre-ceremony media session at today's 25th reunion event at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus.

Martin played his entire 14-year career with the Giants (1975-88) and is most remembered for two plays involving Broncos' QB John Elway that occurred during the 1986 season.

The meeting were reportedly held on Long Island and were devoid of legal teams. This is the way things should be. folks. In this country labor disputes are settled through negotiation, not litigation - via conference room, not court room....

?NFL owners and players have engaged in further confidential discussions before Chief Magistrate Judge Boylan this week. Those discussions will continue.?- joint statement from the NFL and NFLPA on this week's meetings

The three-justice panel heard more arguments in St. Louis yesterday, but when the session ended, there was more uncertainty in the air then when it started.

The owners are declaring their lockout is legal, and possess valid justification in locking out the players in any labor dispute. The players are standing their ground stating the union does not exist and therefore cannot engage in any collective bargaining process.

The most difficult part to swallow for the New York Giants' defensive tackle is the uncertainty. While the future of the NFL hangs in the balance this summer, the earning potential of fifth-year players like Cofield will be determined as well.

After producing the best season of his career with 54 tackles and four sacks while playing on a one-year restricted free agent tender in 2010, Cofield is finally ready to cash in on his first big contract. But the lockout has left his status up in the air. Like some other fifth-year players, Cofield could become an unrestricted free agent. Or, depending on how it all plays out, the 27-year-old could be a restricted free agent again.

That is when the courts will hear the latest - and perhaps final - appeal in this expedited process to legalize the owner's decision to lock out the players.

Should the 3-judge panel uphold the temporary stay on the lockout, it would seem the players would have no recourse but to return to bargaining table, this time with severely marginalized leverage.

from NFL Lockout.com.....

A 44-member group of elected officials and business owners filed an amicus brief in support of the players on Tuesday, stating that a federal court made the correct decision to order an injunction to lift the lockout.

New York Giants fans may not be in panic mode quite yet about the lockout and the possibility of missing a few games this season, but as the summer months pass I?m sure their anxiety will grow. Can you imagine an August without training camp or preseason games?

No face paint, no Eli Manning jerseys, and dare I say no game day libations!

"The other 25 teams have either already instituted cuts, will do so on June 1, or have the right to do so at some point," the paper reports. "The cuts range from 20 to 50 percent."

The Ravens and Packers have already?cut pay from coaches. According to the Palm Beach Post, while most of the?coaches who lose?wages will get the money back once the lockout ends, the Dolphins, who will?dock pay on June 1, will not provide refunds.

Yesterday we heard from both sides of the aisle about the current labor situation.

NFLPA DeMaurice Smith, apparently looking ahead to a career in politics had this to say in front an audience at his alma mater, the University of Maryland:

Mara is a low-key, high-class individual who thinks before speaks. ?I have a boatload of respect for the man. I don't, however, relish the idea of Mara acting as the front man for the owners.

His "essay" today (released on Giants.com) titled "Time to Get Back to Football" is a well-written account of the current condition of our great game, but I believe it will do little to generate any movement towards a settlement.

Smith, in an interview on SiriusXM radio last night, consistently stated that the NFL was suing the players. That folks, is not the case.

Mr. Smith needs to get his facts straight. No wonder this lockout is a mess. One of the major principals is clueless about the facts!!

I understand their frustration. As a football writer and reporter, the one thing I am not comfortable doing is writing columns about U.S. labor law and practices. It is not my expertise.

In fact, it is none of our expertise. Labor laws are written so amorphously and ambiguously, each side has employed extensive law teams just to capture a gist of what they need to do next.

Goodell was asked by Mike Lupica on ESPN Radio who stood the gain the most from a prolonged lockout.

?There is no question ? the attorneys. The lawyers are pursuing the litigation. They obviously benefit from that.?

It's an age-old process used to take as much of the decision-making and accountability out of the hands of the powers that be on each side. ?When they finally do resume negotiations, each side will have a blueprint mapped out by court decisions to follow.

(from WTAQ in Minneapolis) - A judge has granted the players' request for an injunction to lift the NFL lockout.

The NFL Network reports U.S. District Court Judge Susan Nelson decided not to stay the decision, which could force the league to open for business immediately.

"I think the way Mr. Goodell has handled this ... he's kind of using his power, as kind of like a Gestapo-type situation, controlling the players, not letting the judicial system do its work. It's just way too much power for one person to have, and a lot of players take real issue with the way he's using this power."

When Toomer realized he compared Goodell's commissionership to Nazi Germany's violent and unforgiving police force, he rushed to rectify his statement in an email to Newsday:

The players believed litigation was the best route to a new deal, but the Judge Susan Nelson didn't swing at their pitch last Wednesday. ?Today, she told both sides they need to go back to the negotiation table and attempt to work things out.

Nelson will still rule on the players' motion to lift the lockout, but that could take "weeks". ?She wants both sides to continue to talk in the interim, appointing?Chief Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan as the new mediator with the first session scheduled Thursday morning in Boylan's St.Paul office.

Not today, not tomorrow. Not anytime soon as a matter of fact.

This afternoon in a St.Paul Federal courtroom, Judge Susan Nelson pretty much told NFL GMs they'd be drafting out of need at the NFL Draft in two weeks.

As per our colleague, the esteemed Professor John Clayton of ESPN, the ball will begin to roll this morning in Minneapolis where Judge Susan Nelson is expected to put in place a framework for the players and owners to work out a labor deal....

We anxiously await Wednesday's court proceedings in MInneapolis where the Hon Susan Nelson may give us back football for 2011...

By granting an injunction to the lockout, Nelson would start the ball rolling on a) providing some semblance of order towards getting the 2011 season underway...even though ground rules would have to be set in the absence of a CBA and b) getting a new CBA done.

Brees had recently made comments to the effect that the current players should not have to pay for the retired players' "bad business decisions" that have left many of them broke, struggling and in some cases, destitute.

Huff took umbrage when he read Brees' statement. ?From our colleague Evan Weiner at newjerseynewsroom.com....