The NFL lockout enters deadline day...again. For the third time, we're hours away from the expiration date of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement. The two previous deadlines were extended -- first by 24 hours and then by one week -- and we're hoping the current one gets extended.
That's about the only hope we have remaining. The two sides can't even respectfully communicate in public so I can't imagine the negotiations inside the FMCS building at 21st and K in Washington D.C. are going much better.
NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith tweeted on Thursday that NFL players can expect an update at 2:00 p.m. (presumably ET).
As of Friday morning around 10:00 a.m. (ET), both sides were starting to arrive.
The entire NFL labor committee -- minus Bob Kraft, who is in Israel -- is headed to the meetings in D.C. on Friday. They'll be joined by NFL negotiations as they prepare for what is, as of now, the final set of negotiations before the expiration of the current deal. The NFLPA had the largest contingent since negotiations started, according to reports on the ground -- at least two dozen people.
There are plenty of issues to work out but the biggest continues to be how to distribute over $9 billion in revenue. It doesn't sound like that will happen on Friday so let's hope for another extension or brace for the future of football to be decided by lawyers.