NFLPA decertifies; Owners lock out players

By Jordan Ogren–
NFL Labor talks slowed and ended last Friday afternoon just hours before the current CBA extension deadline was set to expire. The players’ union rejected a final offer from the league and made the move to decertify.

The league then made the decision to lockout the players starting at midnight last Friday night. This means that the players are now not allowed to have any contact with their coaches or owners as long as it takes to reach a new agreement.

“The parties have not achieved an overall agreement, nor have they been able to resolve the strongly held competing positions that separated them on core issues,” mediator George Cohen said. “No useful purpose would be served by requesting the parties to continue the mediation process at this time.”

What does it mean to decertify, you may ask? This means that the players’ association is no longer a union, but is now a trade association.

By decertifying, players can file antitrust lawsuits in an attempt to keep the league in operation. In other words, the players decertified in hopes of keeping professional football up and running this upcoming season under their terms.

Now that the league has officially locked out the players, the 2011 NFL season is in serious jeopardy. A request by the players to end the lockout is scheduled to be heard by a federal judge April 6.

Who that federal judge will be is still unknown as selection is done randomly by computer. The players wanted to present their case to Judge David Doty who has handled Labor Union matters in the past and has been known to rule in favor of the players.

“There’s no hard-set deadline for us,” stated former player Kevin Mawae, who was president of the players’ union prior to decertifying. “At the end of the day, our case to decertify was to make sure our players can play football. If that means we get an injunction now or next month — as long as we have the ability to play football in the fall, that’s what we want for ourselves and our fans.”

So it looks like no agreement of any kind will be reached until mid-April, around the time of the 2011 NFL Draft. Until then, all the fans can do is wait and hope the NFL and the players can start getting along and agree on something.