NFL owners and players are scheduled to meet today for the fourth round of intense negotiations this month, following yesterday’s five-and-a-half hour owners meeting outside Chicago. Beginning this morning, owners on the labor negotiating team are meeting outside Boston with the players for a scheduled two days. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell declined to go into specifics of the status of the talks, citing the request of the federal mediator overseeing the negotiations, Magistrate Arthur Boylan.
Goodell did say the league did not anticipate that the federal oversight of the league’s labor relations would continue, a key point for the owners. It is believed that Goodell’s remark on this point was the first time the league has publicly said this, though privately the NFL’s desire to end judicial overview has hardly been a secret.
Meanwhile, there was the expectation owner divisions might be exposed at yesterday’s meeting, but such a development did not appear to be the case. And while there were reports yesterday of very specific revenue splits and deal terms being discussed, sources said what was presented to owners yesterday was more conceptual.
