Day 1 of the court battle between the players and NFL is in the books and the biggest takeaway is that Judge Susan Nelson advised both parties to return to mediation as she takes a couple of weeks to decide on a ruling.
While it would have been nice for Nelson to come to a ruling on Wednesday, that was unlikely to happen. Now she must decide over these next couple of weeks to either side with the players and grant the injunction (which would effectively end the lockout), or side with the owners and either deny the injunction or wait for a ruling that the decertification of the players’ union was an improper bargaining ploy.
Considering she was likely going to need a couple of weeks to make a ruling anyway, it’s nice to see that Nelson urged the two sides to continuing talking. Of course, the hang-up there is that the owners want the players to recertify before they’re willing to return to the bargaining tables. Thus, it seems rather doubtful that the two sides will talk over these next couple of weeks as they wait for Nelson to make her decision.
But hey, one could hope right? Maybe both sides will come to their senses and they’ll come to an agreement over these next couple of weeks, making Nelson’s ruling moot. Then the lockout will end, free agency will start, the draft will go on as normal and everything will be right again in NFL land…
…sorry, I just woke up. Let me check back to see what I just wrote…
…bawahahahahahahahahaha!
