End of referee lockout is cause for celebration, but nobody won this ugly battle

One NFL owner said the league was becoming a national laughingstock. (Getty Images)

The real officials are back. The fake officials will now return to their Facebook pages and lingerie leagues.

The deal was officially finalized around 11:30 p.m. ET with one source saying that much of the framework had been agreed upon earlier in the day.

One owner gave CBSSports.com a window into the final 24-48 hours of the negotiations. Contrary to what league officials have said publicly and privately, the owner said the debacle in Seattle figured greatly in the final hours of the negotiations.

"That game reshaped everything," said the owner, who asked not to be identified. "I can't remember the last time our league was a laughingstock nationally. It shook me. I think it shook a lot of people."

"We were prepared to go longer," the owner said. "We couldn't after that."

The owner said one of the main concerns became the replacement officials inability to control the game. There were fears that there would be an all-out brawl between teams. The owner said the NFL didn't want a fight similar to what happened between the Pacers and Pistons in Michigan in 2004. That's the example the owner gave.

The owner remarked that friends who normally aren't hardcore football fans were asking him about the replacement officials. The owner also became concerned how the NFL was becoming a national punch line. He's right. They were.

Before Seattle-Green Bay, the NFL was far more hardened. The league denies this but it's true. The NFL began to bend on the pension issue post Fail Mary. Because after that game, the real officials had all of the power, and the NFL could no longer wait out the real refs. The league denies this, but it's true.

The owner was asked who won this fight. His response: "The fan. The referees are back."

The complete answer? There is no winner. This will go down as one of the ugliest periods in recent NFL history. It damaged the NFL brand and embarrassed a highly proud league. It caused the Green Bay Packers to lose a game they should have won. Winners? No winners. Just survivors.

This was a process that didn't need to be done. NFL owners attempted to break the referee union for a few extra bucks and came close to wrecking a season.

You will hear about heroes and saviors who swooped in last minute to save the day. You will hear about caped crusaders with fountain pens. You will hear various people try to take credit, but no one deserves credit except the fans who didn't swear off football for the monstrous product that was put on the field.

Now the NFL must work to reestablish its credibility with both the general public and the dedicated footballer. As the lingerie refs depart, the real ones step in, and they will make mistakes. But there will no longer be questions about player safety or the league's integrity. Those issues are dead.

Now it's about earning that trust with the fan again -- a trust that has rarely been tested like this. Oh, there have been issues and lockouts and strikes and ugliness, but this was different. Professional football has survived the Depression, World Wars, and terrorist attacks, but fake officials who had Facebook fan pages and other questionable backgrounds were arguably one of the greater threats to the sport.

So the officials are back. They will be met with almost a hero's welcome because they are the pros. We know what they're about. We know that while mistakes will happen with these refs, the real ones are the best at what they do.

No, there were no winners. Not a single one. If someone says there were, give them a slap upside the head.

Now, back to real football.

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The Fan's Guide To The NFL Lockout

Recently, you may have heard of the possibility of a NFL Lockout on the news or in the paper, and wondered, "What is this all about"? Well, in order to properly understand the NFL Lockout, one must first have a basic understanding of what a Collective Bargaining Agreement, or CBA, is. In simple terms, a CBA is an agreement between an employer (the NFL in this case) and a representative body of employees (the NFLPA). The CBA between the NFL and the NFL Players Association covers everything from the health insurance benefits for the players, to the revenue split between the owners and the players.

The main issues of concern in the current CBA regard the shared revenue between the NFL and the NFLPA and the expansion from a 16 game regular season to an 18 game regular season. These two core issues are essentially what have led the NFL to a lockout, and so far, neither side has made much of an attempt to budge from their respective positions.

Recent attempts at reconciliation and cooperation have been made through federal mediation to no avail, and unfortunately it looks as though this will have to be settled in court. For the fans this means that an NFL Lockout could result in the cancellation of the 2011-2012 football season.

It is no surprise that the fans are pretty fed up with the NFL's infighting. To most it appears to be two very wealthy sides battling it out over more money with no interest in their most important asset, the fans. Many fans have taken it upon themselves to petition the NFL owners not to lockout the players, however, it seems to have had very little effect as the owners continue to push their agendas.

Now fans are taking it a step farther. The No Nonsense Fan League is a fan run organization that has recently vowed to send a physical letter to the NFL for every fan who wishes for their voice to be heard, in an unprecedented attempt to become the representative voice of the fans. Fans from all over the country are taking part in the project and "banding against the NFL Lockout". In doing so each fan receives a "Fan Bandit" wristband to wear in protest of the NFL Lockout, in addition to the letter that is being sent to the NFL on their behalf. Whether or not the fan's attempt to stop the NFL Lockout will work remains to be seen. However, one thing is for certain. The NFL fans are not going to stand by and watch their favorite sport be ruined by the very same people who already make billions of dollars each year in ticket and merchandise sales, and TV and sponsorship deals.

Find out what you can do to stop the NFL Lockout

The Fan's Guide To The NFL Lockout

Britt, Austin take opposite roads during lockout time

Late last month, Tennessee receiver Kenny Britt, one of the NFL's more promising young pass catchers, surrendered himself to Nashville police. Britt had been accused of providing false information for a driver's license, which resulted in warrants for his arrest. It was one of many legal problems that has sent Britt down a Pacman Jones-like rabbit hole of alleged criminal wrongdoing.

Around the same time, a confident woman stared at her son with the radioactive gleam of a proud mom. Ann Austin watched Miles, the Pro Bowl receiver with the Dallas Cowboys, speak with the media at his inaugural charity event to help disadvantaged youths at the North Jersey Country Club in June.

Miles Austin put on the First Annual Austin Family Foundation Golf Outing last month at North Jersey Country Club. (Getty Images) "I look at him and as a mom can't help but be so proud," she said. "He came from nowhere and now plays for the Dallas Cowboys. His life could have gone in so many other directions but he stayed focused and worked hard."

Britt and Austin, once you look deeper, are actually very comparable. Britt was born in Bayonne, N.J., played his football at Rutgers, and most NFL scouts consider him one of the more physically gifted receivers in football. Austin was born in Summit, also played his college football in New Jersey, at Monmouth, and possesses equally devastating tools. Miles is the better player, but Britt might actually have more potential.

They are comparable except in one sense: During the lockout, their careers have taken drastically different paths.

Austin used the lockout to improve his game and life. He did what you'd want a player to do. He is in supreme shape, having worked out almost daily since the lockout began. Austin and his family also put together the charity golf event.

Britt has made different choices. Instead of using the lockout to improve his skills or be productive off the field, he has made headlines with arrests, not charity. In June, he was arrested for resisting arrest (a charge that was later reduced). It was one of several problems Britt has faced during the lockout in what overall has been a troubled career.

Two young receivers, the lockout pushing their careers in alternate directions, making different choices.

The lockout will make or break some careers. Britt is expected to face discipline from both the Titans and the NFL (though the legality of punishing a player after a lockout will surely be addressed by the NFLPA). His actions during the 100-plus-day standoff cast doubt on his ability to be a professional. All Austin has done is better himself.

Austin answered perfectly when asked what he thought was the biggest thing players have to do during the lockout?

"Police yourself," he said. "Stay busy by keeping yourself in shape. Work out, don't get lazy.

"What can happen is that lockout can make players complacent. You have to fight that and act like the lockout can end any minute. When it does end, you'll see right away who was working out, who kept sharp, and who didn't. It'll be immediately noticeable."

The lockout is almost over (we hope) and Austin's theory could be put to the test. Will we see a legion of players who kept focused the way Austin did? My guess is yes. Unfortunately, a few of the Britt-type players will slip through the cracks as well.

Britt hasn't been charged with a crime in days now. That's the good news. The bad news for him is that the lockout isn't over yet.

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Think this lockout is strange? Wait until you hear about '87

PITTSBURGH -- Mention the previous period of labor strife to a Steelers player of that day, and from deep inside veterans and replacements alike arises a chortle.

Then it grows into a guffaw.

1987? Ha-ha-how could they forget?

It all started with Steelers replacement camp in Johnstown, the central Pennsylvania city that floods, the inspiration for the Charlestown Chiefs a decade earlier in the film Slap Shot. This time, it was closer to slapstick.

A member of the L.A. Raiders sits in a picket line during the strike of 1987. (Getty Images) "We went to the bar across the street, had a few beers after practice, and walked back to the hotel," recalled quarterback Steve Bono, a late cut in the club's training camp two months earlier. "To think, we went to camp for six weeks in Latrobe, then went to camp for two more weeks in Johnstown. What were we, nuts?"

Center Mike Webster mooned his striking veteran teammates when they came to picket practice at Johnstown's Point Stadium. "He bent over and started patting his butt. We were howling," tackle and player rep Tunch Ilkin remembered of the future Hall of Famer.

Receiver John Stallworth caught his 500th career pass amid giddy replacement mates whose names he barely remembered by their third and final game together. The pass came on a trap audible, advised by Webster at the line and thrown by Bono, confounded by the post-reception fuss. Bono, by the way, roomed with former UCLA teammate Lupe Sanchez, a Steelers veteran safety walking a line outside Three Rivers Stadium at the time.

Oh, and both replacements and strikers shared the same grass field outside the Pittsburgh stadium, practicing one group after the other because team president Dan Rooney made sure that the vets had a key and a football mission.

Those were a convoluted 24 strike days, to be sure.

"It was interesting," said Rodney Carter, a rookie third-down back enabled by the strike to earn two more seasons to follow. "It was a different time."

"It was," Ilkin added, "a crazy time."

True, parallels exist with today's NFL lockout and nearly 3-month-old labor unrest: decertification of the players association; a Rooney (Art II, not Dan) and a Mara (John, not Wellington) in key positions for the owners; and a lawsuit in front of U.S. District Court Judge David S. Doty in Minnesota (the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral arguments Friday in St. Louis).

Yet, at least for these Steelers, nobody expects to relive those '87 days.

Except in the case where history bears repeating for purely educational and entertainment reasons.

"We got our butts kicked so bad in the strike," Ilkin, now a Steelers radio broadcaster, was saying this week.

Added Craig Wolfley, his assistant rep at the time and a fellow Steelers radio broadcaster today: "We were like the Iraqi Army looking to give itself up to the CNN camera crew."

Under the leadership of Gene Upshaw, the players association membership agreed to strike after the '87 season's second week.

Their stance, in hindsight, was a mite shaky.

They didn't believe owners would stage replacement games. "We were 0 for 1," Ilkin scored it.

They didn't believe the NFL's television partners would air such games. "0 for 2."

They didn't believe fans would pay to watch. "0 for 3."

The Steelers' franchise as a whole was starting to whiff at the plate. As the decade after the Super Bowl 1970s unfolded, with only Webster, Stallworth and safety Donnie Shell remaining among their four-ring crowd, the franchise started to lapse into a sub.-500 state for the first time since coach Chuck Noll's third season, 1971. The two years before 1987, they went 7-9 and 6-10.

So their front office tried to plan ahead for the eventuality of labor trouble, especially five years after a 57-day strike in 1982 that began -- yet again -- after Week 2. Released players such as Bono hung around Pittsburgh, living with Sanchez. Carter, a two-time cut after being a 1986 seventh-rounder, fretted through the dilemma of a financial incentive.

"It might have been, like, [a walk-away offer of] $1,000," said Carter, who works in pharmaceutical sales near Bethlehem, Pa. "If there was a strike, you would come back and play. If there wasn't, you could keep the money. I was one of the last cuts on the final cut day, and I was coming off a knee injury. I didn't take [the money]."

Carter drove directly from his native New Jersey to Johnstown for replacement camp. There he joined a running-back pal who was signed by his hometown Steelers the season before, Chuck Sanders of Slippery Rock. They sat in their hotel Jacuzzi soaking up a new sensation: Free of making-the-roster stress.

"We felt like the stars, me and Rodney Carter," recalled Sanders, the founder and CEO of a settlement-services firm in Pittsburgh.

Carter remembered that night they repaired to their chain hotel room and ordered room service -- most likely burgers, he said -- "and Chuck looked at me: 'This is how the kings live.'"

Paupers abounded among the replacements. One unidentified player wore headphones to the inaugural Johnstown practice until kicker Dave Trout, six years earlier a Steeler, warned him about facing Noll's music. Wannabes came and went in a single day.

"I remember one guy, we were supposed to be in shorts, and he was trying to return punts," Sanders began. "And the ball kept hitting him in the face. Coaches said, 'We got to get you a helmet.'"

"It was a cast of characters," said Bono, who works in financial investments in Menlo Park, Calif. "Even though the movie The Replacements was Hollywood, I always felt the casting of the characters was really good. We had all those types."

Most of any tension was focused on the veterans, starting with a 14-year veteran earning $18,000-plus per game -- the first of four Steelers captains to cross.

"Webby called me up," Ilkin explained. "He was in tears. He said, '... I don't know if I'm going to do this again.' I said, 'Go ahead, man.' But some guys were upset because he was the captain."

"Actually, I was not going to play," said Bono, whose replacement stint sent him on a 15-year career arc that included a Pro Bowl and 13-3 season with the 1995 Chiefs. "I grew up in a union family. My dad was a tool-and-die maker, in the International Machinists Union. But my dad, who was on strike at that time, said: 'You need to play, and these are the reasons why.' He's the one who talked me into it. And thank goodness he did.

"We had a pretty good team., too. Thank goodness for the Mike Websters and Earnest Jacksons and John Stallworths ... and guys who crossed. Plus, guys like me who were not on rosters and came to play. We had for sure a few guys who ended up sticking around for several more years" such as Bono, Carter, guard Brian Blankenship, cornerbacks Larry Griffin and Cornell Gowdy plus linebacker Tyronne Stowe.

The city that floods actually provided a safe haven, far from what Sanders described as "ugly" behavior befalling friends in such places as Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.: "We were better off going to Johnstown, which was smart by the Rooneys."

When the Steelers veterans showed Oct. 2 to picket, the atmosphere was jovial. The vets stood on a bridge overlooking Point Stadium, home mostly to high school sports and a famed Babe Ruth baseball tournament. Each side teased the other, the butt of jokes, a la Webster.

Two days later, the Steelers replacements opened play that resulted in a 2-1 strike record, winning in Atlanta, losing in Los Angeles to a Rams defense with most of its veteran starters and beating the Colts in that Stallworth moment at home. The vets worked out at the downtown YMCA courtesy of then-director Bill Parise, who so happens to represent Steelers linebacker James Harrison nowadays. They practiced at their usual Three Rivers field thanks to Rooney -- "Dan calls up and says, 'There's a key on [this secretary's] desk. You didn't get it from me,'" Ilkin recollected.

After that third replacement game, with an end imminent, Ilkin and Wolfley gathered the veterans at Three Rivers to await word whether to strike or report. Ilkin spoke to Upshaw over a mobile telephone -- before cell phones, remember -- installed in the foreign-made luxury sedan of second-round draftee Delton Hall, the starting cornerback opposite Rod Woodson.

"I thought, if anybody got a picture of that, it wouldn't look good: 'Players on strike, and he's in a Mercedes?!'" Ilkin said.

"That whole strike really, wow, was a mess," Carter continued.

Later on, due mostly to a decertified union and the lawsuit before Doty, the veterans received free agency and the NFL entered a salary-cap era that helped to transform it into a $9 billion business.

"Wow.. ., wow... ," Bono said, struggling to describe it. "People in general have been asking me about the current strike, what's going on. That one [in '87] was a little different."

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Players urge federal appeals court to declare lockout illegal

ST. LOUIS -- NFL players urged a federal appeals court Friday to declare the lockout illegal, saying the league had no right to impose a work stoppage that is now approaching three months with no sign of a deal that will save the 2011 season.

In a courtroom packed with some 200 people, including out-of-work players and retirees on folding chairs brought in to handle the crowd, attorneys on both sides of the bitter labor fight got roughly 30 minutes each to make their cases.

Ted Olson, the lawyer for the players, says 'we're asking for a preliminary injunction for a short period of time.' (Getty Images) The appeal centers on the lockout that began hours after months of labor talks fell apart March 11, the players' union dissolved and the fight ended up in federal court. The NFL contends the union decertification was a sham meant to gain leverage in the talks and the conflict remains subject to labor law.

The players argue that antitrust laws apply and the lockout put in place under labor law needs to be put on hold, as it was in April by U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson in Minnesota.

"We're asking for a preliminary injunction for a short period of time," the players' counsel, Theodore Olson, said in the hushed courtroom. "We're simply asking that the laws of the U.S. be respected."

The arguments came before a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals whose two earlier 2-1 decisions have sided with the league and upheld the lockout. The panel took the arguments under advisement with one judge, Kermit Bye, saying only that a ruling would come in "due course" and he suggested the two sides figure things out.

"We wouldn't be all that hurt if you go out and settle that case," Bye said with a smile as he closed the 68-minute hearing. "We will keep with our business, and if that ends up with a decision, it's probably something both sides aren't going to like."

The league is starting to see the effects of the lockout, with furloughs and other recent moneysaving steps. Training camps traditionally start in late July and the first preseason game is little more than two months away.

The hearing has been seen as pivotal in the dispute over how to share the NFL's $9 billion in annual revenue, and the turnout included NFL Players Association leader DeMaurice Smith and two dozen players, including Green Bay's Cullen Jenkins, the Jets' Tony Richardson and Giants standout Osi Umenyiora.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell spent Friday in Fort Bragg, N.C., a league spokesman tweeting that Goodell isn't a lawyer and "wouldn't have added much to the legal proceedings." Jets owner Woody Johnson was at the hearing.

Paul Clement, an attorney representing the NFL, waved off a reporter's question about whether the NFL had the upper hand.

"As we tried to make clear in there, we think the lockout is actually the best way to get players back on the field," said Clement, who like Olson is a former U.S. solicitor general. "I think people understand that this will be resolved; the resolution will include a collective bargaining agreement. And the fastest way to get there is to get the antitrust laws, which were just a misfit in this context, out of the picture."

The hearing was sometimes dense as Olson and Clement laid out arguments over Nelson's April 25 decision to lift the lockout on the grounds that it was illegal and the players suffering irreparable harm. The 8th Circuit - seen as a more conservative, business-friendly venue for the NFL than the federal courts in Minnesota - put her ruling on hold April 29 and reaffirmed its decision May 16.

Judges Steven Colloton and Duane Benton wrote for the majority then that "the league has made a strong showing that it is likely to succeed on the merits." Bye dissented both times, favoring the players.

Colloton and Benton - appointed by Republican President George W. Bush - were outspoken Friday, peppering Olson and Clement with requests to elaborate on legal points and precedents. Bye, an appointee of President Clinton, a Democrat, offered the opening welcome to the crowded gallery, but remained mostly quiet.

Clement insisted the Norris-LaGuardia Act bars court injunctions in cases arising from a labor dispute, which he maintained is in play, and said Nelson's decision runs afoul of it.

"Ultimately, collective bargaining is a much better way to resolve these disputes than antitrust litigation," Clement said.

Olson countered that the act, which dates to the Depression, didn't apply without organized labor activity -- and the players union legally dissolved before the court fight, which includes a still pending federal antitrust lawsuit filed by 10 players, including Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.

"The players are perfectly happy to be protected by antitrust laws," Olson said. He denied the decertification was a negotiating tactic, adding the players are barred from engaging in collective bargaining after their decision.

"They did every step necessary" to dissolve the union, Olson said. "They made a significant choice, which has significant effects under labor law."

Olson also argued his clients continue to be harmed financially by the lockout. Clement, asked by Bye about that issue, refused to concede Olson's claim and said "any evidentiary hearing before the court would bear that out" - though he didn't think it necessary.

The two sides met for 16 days before talks fell apart. A federal magistrate has also held six days of mediation with the two sides, and he was on hand with them again during three days of discussions near Chicago.

Ernie Conwell, a former Rams and Saints tight end, said the players were at the negotiating table all those times but "didn't have a willing participant" in the NFL. And he scoffed at Clement's suggestion that players are enjoying more recreational time with the lockout.

"Come on," said Conwell, now a players' representative. "There is a lot of stress on these guys not knowing what the future holds for them. And the league understands that - that's why the lockout is in place."

Brady said during halftime of a charity touch football game at Harvard that he's still hopeful that there will be a resolution soon, though he acknowledged that "nobody knows."

"Everyone is working hard toward a great outcome," the Patriots quarterback said. "And I'm confident that a lot of reasonable people will come to a very reasonable agreement."

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Players, draftees attend Redskins' lockout workout

Instead of coach Mike Shanahan, the authority figure at the center of the post-practice huddle was the head of group formerly known as the players' union.

Instead of burgundy and gold uniforms with numbers, the 41 players on the field wore basic T-shirts and shorts. Several rookies -- 10 of the 12 draft picks showed up -- simply wore something with the name of their college on it.

Instead of Redskins Park, the venue was a Virginia high school field whose location had to be kept secret so that fans wouldn't try to crash the practice and disrupt the school day.

Yet some things were the same when the Washington Redskins gathered Tuesday morning for the opening of a three-day player-run minicamp. For one thing, the rookies were a bit nervous -- and a bit overwhelmed.

"Last night I couldn't sleep, I was so ready to come out here," said fifth-round pick Niles Paul, a receiver from Nebraska. "As soon as I started to feel more comfortable, (quarterback John) Beck would draw up some more plays and put me back in an uncomfortable zone. It was definitely a learning experience."

The minicamp already has more flow and organization than the two-day camp the players put together last month in their effort to stay sharp and maintain camaraderie during the NFL lockout. Tuesday morning's session went for 90 minutes and combined a number of individual and team drills, with linebacker London Fletcher leading the defense, center Casey Rabach shepherding around the offensive linemen and fullback Mike Sellers handling the running backs.

"The last time we got together it was `OK, how do we run this?"' Beck said. "Now we know. Now we know the structure that we want to have, so now we can go off that structure and increase tempo, increase plays, and get more out of it."

But it's still not the same. Afterward, Beck pointed out that Redskins practices are filmed in great detail. He wished he could have the chance to go back and review the workout to see whether his footwork was correct, or whether he misread the coverage on a particular pass route.

"We've already missed so many regular practices," Beck said. "In an ideal offseason, we would only have 2 1/2, three weeks left. We've already botched the first four weeks."

About 25-30 players attended last month's lockout workouts, but three significant developments have taken place since then:

• The NFL held its draft, giving the veterans a dozen fresh faces to contact. All the draftees were present except second-round pick Jarvis Jenkins and sixth-rounder Aldrick Robinson.

• When the lockout was briefly lifted, before being reinstated, players managed to have a few hours with the coaching staff to get new playbooks. The veterans have since been sharing the playbooks with teammates and the draft picks.

• The court fights have dragged on, making the end of the lockout appear nowhere in sight. It was more imperative than ever to get together and do something constructive.

"You can look at a piece of paper and the Xs and Os all you want," said defensive back DeJon Gomes, a fifth-round pick from Nebraska. "But with the live experience, you're going to be able to pick it up that much more."

Once again, the players had to supply their own equipment. Linebacker Lorenzo Alexander handled much of the logistics, making sure everyone had a hotel room and a rental car. There was even a sponsor -- the real estate company run by defensive lineman Kedric Golston. One thing they still don't have is insurance in case of injury.

"Thought about it, tried, but any time you mention professional athletes it gets really pricey," Alexander said, "and it's not like I'm going to get reimbursed for it. We want to be competitive, but don't be stupid. Laying off balls, don't pull on jerseys, protect each other, and I think we're doing a good job of that."

The surprise guest was NFL Players Associated executive director DeMaurice Smith, who answered players' questions for about 15 minutes after practice. Players said Smith didn't say much that was new, but mostly gave a timeline of upcoming important dates as the lockout makes its way through the courts.

Smith also urged the players to stick together through the uncertain times. He did not speak to reporters.

"I think it's very important for the players to hear from the De Smith," tight end Chris Cooley said, "and to hear what we have going on."

The Redskins' two biggest newsmakers from last season -- Donovan McNabb and Albert Haynesworth -- again stayed away. Neither is expected to remain with the team for very long once the lockout ends.

And, of course, it wouldn't be a Redskins practice without some sort of quarterback drama. Beck and Rex Grossman, the two quarterbacks who were present, both say they are preparing to be the starter next season, even though Beck hasn't played in a regular season game in four years and Grossman is a free agent.

"I feel like I played well at the end of the year and would like to continue that," Grossman said. "Everybody should want to start. You get to this level, you think of yourself as a starter, and he's doing the same thing."

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Other pro sports' unions support lifting of lockout

MINNEAPOLIS -- The unions for hockey, baseball and basketball are siding with the players in the NFL lockout court battle, saying the league's lockout should be lifted.

The players associations for MLB, the NHL and the NBA filed a brief Friday with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, saying the case presents "vitally important issues" for the unions and their members. The players associations say professional athletes' careers are short, and the loss of even part of a season causes personal and professional injures that can't be compensated.

That reiterates the NFL players' argument that the lockout is causing them irreparable harm -- the players can't work out, or sign contracts with any of the 32 clubs while the lockout persists. A federal judge in Minnesota agreed and lifted the lockout April 25, but the league appealed.

The appeals court reversed U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson's decision just four days later. And on Monday, the appellate court ruled the lockout can stay in place until a full appeal is heard on whether it is legal. Attorneys for the players were expected to file briefs later Friday, in advance of an appeals court hearing June 3 in St. Louis.

In keeping the lockout, the appellate court said it believes the NFL has proven it "likely will suffer some degree of irreparable harm without a stay."

In their brief Friday, the players associations said "there is no offseason in professional sports -- only the portion of the work year during which no games are played." The unions said that part of the year brings opportunities -- such as the option to change cities, teams or the trajectory of one's career.

Also Friday, a nonprofit group that has been fighting work stoppages in sports filed a brief saying the lockout should be lifted. The Sports Fans Coalition, which says it gives fans a voice on public policy issues and fights for fan access to games, said the lockout is not in the best interest of fans, who pay billions of dollars to see their teams perform.

The NFL players also have a federal antitrust lawsuit against the league pending before Nelson. The main issues in the antitrust case need to be resolved, but the legality of the lockout is the fight for now.

The NFL has argued in its appeal that lifting the labor lockout without a new contract in place would allow better-off teams to sign the best players, tipping the NFL's competitive balance and damaging the league.

The league says the union's move to decertify after the initial bargaining talks broke down is a sham; that Nelson does not have the jurisdiction to lift the lockout; and that she should have waited for a decision from the National Labor Relations Board before issuing that ruling.

The league also said that lifting the lockout with no labor deal in place would cause chaos, with teams trying to make decisions on signing free agents and making trades under a set of rules that could change drastically under a new agreement.

"It would be difficult, if not impossible, to unscramble the eggs and return those players to clubs that otherwise may have had contract arrangements with [or, at least, a greater ability to enter into contracts with] such players in the absence of an injunction," the league has said in court filings.

The group of players suing the league, including star quarterbacks Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, have said the lockout is inflicting irreparable harm on their brief playing careers by preventing them from working out at team headquarters, holding full practices with teammates and coaches and jeopardizing games.

The longer the fight over how to divvy up $9 billion in annual revenue drags on, the closer the league and players get to missing games. The first preseason game is Aug. 7, with the regular-season opener between the Saints and Packers set for Sept. 8 in Green Bay, Wis.

When it comes to the overall antitrust lawsuit, attorneys for the players filed documents in U.S. District Court on Friday, opposing a league request for more time to respond to the claim. The league has argued it shouldn't have to respond to the lawsuit until the appeal over the lockout is resolved.

But the players say the lawsuit will go forward whether or not the lockout is lifted and that the NFL's request for an extension is "yet another deliberate step in their campaign to crush the players by extending the lockout for as long as they can."

Also this week, the NFL owners and players finished their latest round of court-ordered mediation behind closed doors, without any signs of a new agreement.

Officials and attorneys for both sides said they will return for more closed-door talks with U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan on June 7. The two sides met for 16 days before talks fell apart March 11. Boylan presided over four days of mediation last month and two more days this week.

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Lockout eliminates chances of first-year phenoms surprising

The NFL has had at least five new playoff teams each season for the past 15 years, but that streak ends this year, and I'll tell you why in one word.

Lockout.

With no offseason minicamps, OTAs, team meetings, quarterback camps, skull sessions, you name it, the teams penalized most are the ones that just blew up coaching staffs, quarterbacks ... or both.

In '08, QB Joe Flacco and coach John Harbaugh made the playoffs as rookies, but that will be hard for others to duplicate. (Getty Images) If you include Minnesota and Dallas, there are eight clubs with new head coaches, and I count at least eight with unresolved quarterback situations, too. Combining the two lists, that's more than ? of the league, and that's more than ? of the competition you can eliminate for playoff spots because the lockout won't allow them the time, on-field workouts, OTAs, minicamps and general instruction necessary to jump to the head of the class.

Result: The field just got smaller for playoff hopefuls.

That's not to say someone like perennial bottom-feeder Detroit can't succeed. It can. In fact, I think the Lions and St. Louis Rams are two longshots likely to make playoff pushes. But what does each have that, oh, say, Tennessee or Carolina does not? Uh-huh. A head coach and quarterback who haven't changed.

That's huge in a season where there has been little or no offseason contact between players and coaches. Owners change coaches because players fail to respond to them, but how does anyone communicate with players when it is forbidden? They don't, which means every day lost to the lockout is more time off the clock for new coaches to familiarize themselves with their teams and for new quarterbacks to familiarize themselves with the pro game.

I've already addressed how this year's rookie passers will be affected, and it's not good. Four are potential opening-day starters, and all desperately need offseason work that is not available. It doesn't exactly take Einstein to figure out what happens next: Coaches will be forced to shrink playbooks, offenses will be limited, success will be elusive and the playoffs will be missed.

Basically, the longer the lockout lasts the less likely it is that rookie quarterbacks -- and their clubs -- accomplish anything of consequence this season ... if there is a season.

"Let's say they get no OTAs," said former head coach Brian Billick, now an analyst for Fox and the NFL Network, "and let's say we get a full training camp. Then I cut the odds down by at least 50 percent in terms of a quarterback's ability to come in and be a starter. And with every week into training camp we lose I think we knock it down 25 percent.

"You can't be overly optimistic with what you think you can get done with rookie quarterbacks -- which means a year from now I don't know that we'll know anything more about Cam Newton than we do this year. But, frankly, with this group of quarterbacks I'm not sure it's not the best thing because it will give them an 'out.'

"Maybe they're not particularly productive, but you can say, 'Hey, what did you expect?' I'm a true believer in the only way you are [successful] is to play, but I don't think any of these guys is capable of coming in and having a Matt Ryan or a Joe Flacco year."

Funny he should mention those two. Ryan took the Atlanta Falcons to the playoffs in his first season under a rookie head coach, Mike Smith. Flacco did the same thing in Baltimore with first-year coach John Harbaugh, only the Ravens made it to the conference championship game. The same thing happened a year later with the New York Jets, with rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez and first-year head coach Rex Ryan.

My prediction: That doesn't happen this season because it can't. The lockout won't allow it. There is too much that has been sacrificed -- starting with terminology, formations and, in some cases, simply taking snaps from center -- for a rookie quarterback and his new head coach to overcome. The flip side, of course, is what the lockout means for teams with returning quarterbacks, returning head coaches and a veteran core -- and what it means is not much. They don't have to boil down playbooks. They don't have to get acquainted. They don't have to go over new terminology or formations. They don't have to change much of anything, and tell me that doesn't broaden the gap between them and the have-nots.

"The rich just got richer in a lot of different ways," Billick said, "and particularly early in the season. Let's assume they're going to be good and are going to get better as the season goes along. Well, it's going to show up early. The die gets cast early with some of these teams because of how the schedule is laid out, so some are going to be in a really tough spot.

"What do we have ... 15 straight years with five new playoff teams each season? We may see that break this year because those who 'have' are in much better position to have a huge advantage."

I couldn't agree more.

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Lockout could mean TV openings for UFL games

Though the uncertainty of the NFL's labor situation will affect the United Football League in the near future, commissioner Michael Huyghue is pleased with recent developments regarding the league.

The league is in negotiations with several networks for broadcast rights, including Versus and HDNet, which televised UFL games for the past two seasons, as well as CBS Sports, FOX Sports and Turner Broadcasting. The UFL season is expected to begin in August, with games scheduled for Sunday and Monday nights. The commissioner said games will move to Friday and Saturdays in September.

If the NFL lockout remains unsettled by then, the UFL could look to move the games to the open TV slots.

"If that space is open we're going to take it," Huyghue said. "We've been working with our stadiums to keep those dates open."

The UFL released its 2011 schedule earlier this week to the coaching staffs of its five franchises and expects to release it shortly to the public, Huyghue said Wednesday.

Nearly every franchise in the league has struggled financially. The Hartford Colonials, for instance, have yet to settle a $90,000 bill with the State of Connecticut for game expenses last season. The Colonials played four home games last season at 40,000-seat Rentschler Field in East Hartford, which is owned by the state. The sides have yet to agree on terms for a lease for the 2011 season, representatives from the team and the state said this week.

"We want them there -- they're a great asset for the stadium and the area," said Kim Hart, policy development director with the State of Connecticut Office of Policy and Management. "[But] we cannot enter into serious discussion until we settle the expenses from last season."

Huyghue remains confident there will be a UFL season in 2011 after battling through financial difficulties over the past several months. He said the UFL settled a federal lawsuit in April filed three months earlier by HDNET LLC, the company owned by Mark Cuban. In April 2010, Cuban agreed to loan the league $5 million with the understanding the amount would be repaid by October.

"We had a shortfall at the end of the season; teams were hesitant to meet their financial commitments," Huyghue said. "Sometime in April they had a plan put in place to pay the notes available."

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NFL players, coaches violate lockout by staying in touch

The workout ended and a small group of players from one NFL team left a practice field, drove to a nearby house of a teammate and went inside. Once there, one of the players put his phone, near the kitchen, on speaker.

A few rings and then a familiar voice answered. It was one of the offensive assistant coaches. "How did practice go?" the assistant asked and a relaxed, 20-minute conversation between coach and players ensued.

It's a normally unremarkable scene except for one problem: it's not supposed to happen.

Over a two-week period, I spoke with a half-dozen players and handful of assistant coaches from both conferences. The picture that emerges is one where coaches and players, despite rules against it, stay in almost weekly contact with one another using a variety of technologies.

While lockout rules are supposed to prevent contact between players and coaches, when it comes to the team workouts, both sides are utilizing Skype, e-mail, text-messaging and good, old-fashioned phone calls to update coaches on the progress of group workouts, what players are doing to stay in shape and even personal issues.

Sometimes, they simply gossip or talk about the lockout. Think of the irony of talking about the lockout when they're not supposed to be talking during the lockout. It's like talking about Fight Club during a fight.

Players privately acknowledge that by engaging with coaches during the lockout they are in a way undermining their own trade association. The players' greatest leverage during the lockout is their particular and unmatched skill set, and if they secretly work with their teams the players are undercutting their own power.

They don't seem to care. What was stated repeatedly in interviews is that whichever team stays the most cohesive during this highly divisive fight with owners will have the biggest advantage once the lockout ends.

"Eventually we'll have football again," one high-profile offensive player said. "All that matters to me is who is ready and who isn't."

Players also say that while they see owners as the enemy, they don't view assistant coaches the same way.

Several players estimated 25 percent of the league's players are in regular contact with assistant coaches. However not one player said he had spoken to a head coach. It seems the head coaches, while aware of the contact, are keeping their distance and allowing subordinates to speak with players on their behalf, several sources stated. Plausible deniability, said one assistant. Any team caught communicating with players is subject to punishment from the league office. Superficially, the league is inactive but underneath there are a great many things happening. After I first reported teams were illicitly contacting undrafted free agents, for example. Pro Football Weekly later stated that six NFL agents had been contacted by clubs about those players, a violation of lockout rules. The Columbia (Mo.) Tribune reported that undrafted center Tim Barnes was contacted by Baltimore, Miami and Cincinnati. An NFL spokesman said such contact would amount to tampering.

As for the workouts themselves, some players believe in them, while others aren't so sure of their effectiveness. Green Bay linebacker A.J. Hawk told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the Super Bowl defending champions are staying in shape without the group sessions.

"The most the defense can do when we get together is seven-on-seven," Hawk said. "I can understand quarterbacks throwing to receivers and stuff like that. I think it's more of a camaraderie thing. I've heard that different guys' workouts from different teams have just been a disaster. They're working out at bad high school fields and equipment and all that kind of stuff."

Hawk seems to be in the minority, however. Most players interviewed seemed to suggest the workouts are a tremendous help. New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees recently organized almost 40 Saints players for group sessions at Tulane.

"We would all be working out somewhere anyway, so why not do it together and why not do it in an organized fashion where it's very football-related?" Brees asked. "It's preparing us to have a championship season, and I feel like it's putting us way ahead of other teams around the league, just by the fact that we’re so organized."

The New York Jets, Giants, Denver, Cleveland, Miami, and Atlanta, among other teams, have held team workouts. Interestingly, players interviewed declined to say if their team was in contact with coaches but did speak about other teams.

Some coaches, players said, have joined players at their home to watch game film and discuss how to better structure the workouts. Coaches are also updated on injuries and how players are recovering from offseason surgeries, players said.

Players and coaches use the Internet phone system Skype. Players describe scenes where coaches first fax copies of certain plays and then players and coaches go over those plays using Skype. Later, players run those plays.

I've heard of conversations between coaches and players using the private direct message function on Twitter as well. Totally untraceable by the NFL.

My guess? This type of contact will continue and no one will ever get caught.

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Pasquarelli: Lockout makes signability big concern

Last week, the Tampa Bay Bucs confirmed their personnel department has been e-mailing player agents to solicit feedback on the possible slot-ranges where their clients might be drafted.

The unusual method permits the Tampa Bay staff another useful metric in cross-checking its own in-house assessments of players and to identify possible areas of disparity in prospect evaluation. But there is another agent-prospect dynamic, several franchises have told The Sports Xchange, that is garnering increased attention lately because of the ongoing lockout and its ramifications.

The concept of "signability" has long been a component of the NFL Draft. This year, though, it has taken on added significance.

Although some personnel directors and general managers conceded they harbored reservations about a prospect based on his agent, they allowed that representation rarely has affected choices, particularly in the mid- to late rounds. And that likely will be the case again in the 2011 draft. But the possibility that the lockout will preclude franchises from signing prospects before the summer -- and that contract negotiations might not even be permitted until a few weeks before training camps open -- adds another layer of intrigue to the lottery.

How much concern: Franchises routinely compile lists of what agents represent what players in a draft. But several clubs contacted by The Sports Xchange this week acknowledged that they have worked harder and more diligently linking prospects, particularly those who figure to be selected in the first two rounds, with the men who will negotiate their first NFL contracts.

Three of the teams allowed they have disseminated the lists to their personnel departments, at least one of them for the first time. During player interviews at the combine, teams were increasingly interested in identifying prospects' agents. The initiative has continued in players' visits to franchise headquarters.

And it's more than simple curiosity, it seems.

Beyond just the pairing of players and agents, a few teams, with time on their hands because of the lockout, have compiled extensive background details on the track records of agents who are more likely to hold a player out of camp. The information isn't apt to affect choices at the top of the draft, but could provide clubs some pause in situations where player evaluations are close. The information could perhaps add another variable in parsing similarly graded prospects.

"In any year," said the personnel director of an AFC team, "you want your guys in camp on time. This year, that might be [especially crucial. I can't honestly say that our team ever bypassed [a player] because of the agent involved. We've pretty much operated under the assumption that, no matter how big a [bad guy] the agent is, the player is going to be here. But because of the circumstances, it's definitely a part of the equation this year."

League teams are always cognizant of the "signability" element, and wary of agents with reputations for prolonged negotiations, but it has been a much larger factor in baseball in recent years. But in yet another lockout-year phenomena, franchises are more aware of the factor this spring.

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Indy not letting lockout slow down Super Bowl plans

INDIANAPOLIS -- Mark Miles doesn't expect the NFL's lockout to be settled until at least this summer.

The 2012 Super Bowl host committee chairman is still moving ahead, as scheduled, with his plans.

As the countdown to February's Super Bowl hit 300 days Monday, Miles described the progress made over the last three months and addressed the one issue everyone is asking -- whether the lockout could scuttle the city's first Super Bowl.

"There are probably scenarios where you may miss some preseason games and you may even miss some regular-season games and the league officials will have to define what constitutes a season for them," Miles said. "So we're doing our thing and we are doing what needs to be done and not let it [the lockout] become a distraction."

Organizers don't have a choice.

With $35 million of construction projects under way on the city's near east side, another major construction project in full throttle downtown and 60 committees trying to fine-tune details, the host committee is busy.

Miles said league officials gave the host committee high markets after a recent meeting in New York regarding the plans. Back in Indy, the biggest question is whether the game will be played as scheduled on Feb. 5. League officials also asked the committee to keep the following week open in case there was a postponement.

Beyond that, the options are, well, limited.

"There are two dates -- Feb. 5 and Feb. 12, that's it," Miles said when asked about playing the game on another date.

But Miles does not expect a delay.

He spends part of each day reading reports out of Minnesota, New York and Washington and trying to understand all the twists and turns that could Indy's big game.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson ordered the two sides to participate in court-ordered mediation -- a move that could help the owners and players reach a speedier resolution. Or not.

"Judge Nelson has said she will rule in a couple of weeks and then you figure that either party is likely to appeal, and what's likely to result, I think you're looking at the summer, at least, before we have clarity on this," Miles said.

Miles insists he has not been getting inside information from league officials, though he does have a friendship with Colts owner Jim Irsay that dates to 1984 after Irsay's late father, Robert, moved the team to Indy from Baltimore. Miles said he has been communicating with the Colts during the lockout, and Irsay has been one of the biggest public supporters for next year's Super Bowl.

"I have great optimism that we will have a season, we will have a Super Bowl," Irsay said last month, shortly after the lockout began. "But you can't just say optimism will get things done. There's a lot of heavy lifting that has to get done."

Host committee president Allison Melangton acknowledged Monday the committee dealing with weather concerns has met three times in the last six weeks, and two other committees are looking extensively as transportation and law enforcement issues.

The practice bubble on the city's east side, where the NFC champions will work during Super Bowl week is up and functioning, too.

"We're pulling the plan together and executing it, regardless of the labor situation," Miles said. "We said it was more likely than not that there would be a lockout and that it would drag on for a long period of time, and that's exactly what is happening. There are some who believe it will be late summer or fall before the labor situation is resolved, and that is our opinion, too.

"But we've said for some time that we would be prepared for Indy to host the Super Bowl on Feb. 5 and that is what we are doing."

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