And now they really arent talking anymore.
A federal appeals court gave
N.F.L. owners a critical victory over players in their labor battle Monday, granting owners a stay on an injunction that would have stopped the lockout that began March 12.
The N.F.L. will remain closed for business – with no free agency, trades or mini-camps permitted -- through the duration of the owners’ appeal of the injunction that was granted by a district court judge. Oral arguments on the appeal will be heard on June 3 in St. Louis and a decision is expected several weeks later, perhaps coming about a month before training camps are scheduled to open and little more than two months before the regular season begins in September. The decision by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals was widely expected by parties on both sides of the standoff, after the court issued a temporary stay more than two weeks ago. This decision was viewed as a crucial one in determining who has the upper hand in the standoff between players and management. If owners had failed to get the stay, the lockout would have been lifted and the league would have been forced to put in rules to govern transactions and open free agency. Players would have been allowed to work out at team facilities, signings and trades would have gone forward, some bonuses would have been paid and coaches could have conducted mini-camps. That would have made it exceedingly difficult for the league, even if it had won the appeal late in June, to reinstate the lockout, giving a huge advantage to players and perhaps leading the owners to seek a settlement even before the appeal was decided. In their brief to the court, the league emphasized how difficult it would be to “unscramble the eggs” if a month’s worth of transactions had taken place only to have the owners win on appeal and defeat the injunction.
“This is the decision that, practically, means everything,” said Robert Boland, a professor of sports management at New York University and a labor and antitrust lawyer who has worked as a sports agent. “This is who has control of the game board. That’s far more important, practically, than who has the legal rights on their side. If the league is opened for business it’s very difficult for owners to push them back out. Every day they are open, the economic value and the optics says you need to stay open. This puts a lot of pressure on players. No roster bonuses will be paid. There won’t be per diems which are important to younger players. It’s the worst thing for them from a solidarity perspective.”
Still, Boland also said the sides are highly balkanized and he does not expect fissures on either side soon. The outcome of the appeal would swing leverage to one side and if the owners win the appeal, the lockout would remain in place, putting tremendous pressure on players to reach an agreement with owners before they start missing game checks when the season begins. If the players win the appeal, the lockout would be lifted and owners would be forced to open the league. Because owners do not want to pay players while they are being sued on antitrust grounds – and while the case wends its way through courts in a process that could take several years -- owners would likely seek to negotiate a settlement of the lawsuit long before the lawsuit could be decided on its merits.
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