NFL, Union to Resume Mediation Thursday

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By HOWARD FENDRICH

WASHINGTON (AP) - Locked in a multibillion dollar staredown, the NFL and the players' union were expected to resume mediation Thursday morning, 15 hours before the current collective bargaining agreement expires.

The sides have met for nine days before federal mediator George Cohen, with no reports of significant progress. They talked for four hours Wednesday, before the NFL contingent departed to attend a meeting of the 32 teams' owners at a hotel 25 miles away in Chantilly, Va.

Wednesday evening, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, two members of the owners' labor committee and two top lawyers for the league returned to meet with Cohen at his office, with Goodell and the attorneys leaving last at 9:45 p.m.

The NFL Players Association was not present for that meeting.


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Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones arrives at a hotel in Chantilly, Va., Wednesday, March 2, 2011. The ninth session at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in Washington came on the same day that the league's 32 team owners were gathering at a hotel about 25 miles away in Chantilly, Va. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and all 10 members of the owners' labor committee left the mediation after about four hours of talks. (AP Photo/Luis M