Too much money involved for there not to be football, but it will take a couple months to establish leverage via litigation and then they'll get back together.
Outstanding are 2 very big things:
- The NFL contends the decertification is a sham (legal term) and that the union has only temporarily decertified with the intention of reconstituting itself once they've gotten their way. There was language in the previous CBA that forbid this... but it said it was forbidden within 6 months of the expiration of the CBA... so the union decertified before it expired. Technicality, but the NFL is challenging this. If they win, they union is once again a labor union and a lot of their leverage is gone.
- NFL has locked players out so that they don't break they law by operating as normal as they can. With the union decertified, 32 seperate businesses can't operate under a set group of rules for things like free agency. This is what the Brady Lawsuit is contending. The result/settlement of that lawsuit will be the new CBA if the first point doesn't make it irrelevant. There's a hearing Wednesday, not sure what will happen there, but the NFL has a strong case for keeping the lockout (IMO) while the 'sham' is pending, not sure when that's being heard.
There's also the TV Lockout Insurance case, there's a hearing for that in May. The players have won that case and are asking for damages... and they also have tried to tack on 'lift the lockout' to that ruling too.
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