NFL on Hold; Players Study Deal OK'd by Owners

Source: AP

By HOWARD FENDRICH

WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawyers from both sides of the NFL's labor dispute plan to work through the weekend - although not face-to-face - to try to resolve the differences that are preventing players from voting on the owner-approved proposal to end the lockout.

After the NFL Players Association decided not to vote Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, it's now possible the group won't make any decision until next week. It all depends on how long it takes to resolve the remaining differences.

So the NFL is stuck in a holding pattern. As it is, clubs already were told not to expect players to begin arriving at facilities Saturday, when owners hoped gates would open.

"Now it's just waiting," Carolina Panthers general manager Marty Hurney said at an Atlanta hotel where team executives were briefed Friday on new rules for next season. "Be flexible, and wait and see what happens."

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" When You Call It a Game, They Call It a Business, But When I Called
It A Business, The Said It Was Just A Game "

"When talks broke down in March, allowing the old collective bargaining agreement to expire, the players dissolved the union, turning the NFLPA into a trade association. That's what allowed the players to sue the owners in federal court under antitrust law.

"Only after the NFLPA is again a union can it negotiate certain parts of a new CBA."

Now they're workers, now they're businessmen, now they're workers. It's stopped being a game and they've stopped being players.