The lead negotiating teams for the NFL and the players met again Tuesday outside Washington, D.C. on Maryland’s eastern shore. As we enter day 91 of the lockout both sides are said to be in a deal-making mode.
On ProPlayerInsidersRadio* DeMaurice Smith, Executive Director of the NFLPA said that a resolution of the issues between the players and the owners will come from the tools of both litigation and mediation. “Both sides are continuing to mediatate and the folks were wrong to believe that there was a false choice between defending ourselves in courts and engaging in discussions to settle our differences. I hope that mediation continues and both sides work hard to resolve our differences to make sure that football doesn’t go interrupted,” Smith said.
Show host Dave Zirin asked Smith about the “secret meetings” verses mediation. Smith said the meetings are all being conducted pursuant to the court ordered mediation which required that the meetings be confidential. So while the media has viewed the offsite locations as something unique, according to Smith its just part of the process. He added it is important that the parties be able to sit down freely to discuss the issues and exchange information in a way that is beneficial to resolving their differences.
The players he says do have the best interest of the fans in mind, are focused on getting back to the game of football and proof of that is everywhere.
“Look around and you can see the guys want to play,” Smith said. All over the country players have been organizing and attending player only workouts. “The proof is that the players are working out on their own for free. The players want to play, they love to compete, they love to be around their teammates and they’re working out during the offseason to keep themselves in shape because they want to bring a championship home to their home team.”
“Our issues [between the league and the players] have never been setteled in one isolated venue,” Smith said. “Look at the history of the National Football League. A collective bargaining agreement was fashioned out of the Reggie White lawsuit. The mediation that we are doing right now flows out of a court case where we sued to stop the lockout.”
“The National Football league rests on the bedrock of antitrust laws and the CBA came out of conflict from those antitrust laws,” Smith said, “and resolutions to our issues will not only involve the mediation of our differences but at the end of the day recognize some sort of solution to the antitrust laws.”
Of course Smith did not reveal any details of the discussions but said that many of the issues are the same ones that have been raised over the past two years. So while each party will always look to the courts to protect themselves, Smith says he believes in the mediation process to resolve the differences.
Today’s meetings follow several previous sessions between the parties that have been viewed as productive as well as reports that league has requested that the teams be prepared to stay overnight during next Tuesday’s NFL meetings in Chicago. It seems that the NFL is a believer in the mediation process too. More good news.
*The interview with DeMaurice Smith was recorded on Thursday and aired today.
