Today could be a pivotal moment in the NFL’s ongoing labor dispute as the union tries to take away the owners’ “lockout insurance.”
That’s how the NFL Players Association is describing roughly $4.5 billion guaranteed to the owners by the TV networks in 2011 even if games are not played, and the union is hoping a special master will agree to force the league to put that money in escrow.
The special master will hear the NFLPA’s case this morning in Manhattan, and a ruling in the union’s favor could force the owners to agree more quickly to a new collective bargaining agreement — and thwart their planned lockout.
The union claims the owners took less from the networks on their recent TV deal in return for the money being guaranteed in 2011 regardless of whether or not games are played.
The NFL vigorously disputes that, and commissioner Roger Goodell increased the rhetoric yesterday with an e-mail to an estimated 2 million fans reasserting the league’s side of the dispute.
“If both sides give a little, everyone, including fans, will get a lot and the game will improve through innovation,” Goodell wrote in the e-mail, adding that he knows “we can and will reach an agreement.”
Giants chairman Steve Tisch said he shared Goodell’s cautious optimism.
“It’s on everybody’s minds, and I do think there will be a deal,” Tisch said yesterday. “I can’t stand here and tell you when that deal is going to be closed and signed, but I think a lot of people are working very hard and taking the issue very, very seriously.
“Nobody wants to see a locked-out season, especially the fans, ownership and the players.”