[sportscurmudgeon]

On the very good chance that there will not be a new CBA by early March 2011, there are 3 possibilities:


1. The owners and players can agree to extend the current CBA and continue negotiating. That is unlikely since the owners acted to shorten the agreement in the first place bringing on this round of CBA negotiations. It is possible but not likely...

2. The owners can make a "last, best and final offer" to the players which the players would refuse and the owners can then implement them going forward pending a variety of legal hearings/trials/arbitrations down the line. The problem with that course is that it puts the players in the driver's seat. They can play until Thanksgiving under the new "owners' rules" and then go on strike killing off the end of the season and the playoffs and the Super Bowl. The owners are unlikely to put that kind of power in the hands of the NFLPA.

3. The owners can lockout the players. That leaves the NFLPA with the route of decertifying and suing the NFL on anti-trust grounds. They might win that suit but winning the suit does NOT force the owners to restart a pro football schedule. It might be a Pyrrhic victory for lots of players...


Absent a new CBA, there really aren't a whole lot of other scenarios here that do not require the intervention of the Tooth Fairy. If there is no CBA, the owners are almost forced into a "lockout" strategy because Option 1 weakens their argument that the current deal is economically burdensome for them and Option 2 hands the NFLPA a loaded gun to put to the heads of the owners.

When it happens, it might help a bit if we all understood that it was inevitable once the owners chose to shorten the current CBA...