Remember the report about how a new CBA could be in place by the time of the NFL draft? Well apparently fans can forget about that.

Just days after NFL Network’s Albert Breer reported that the CBA discusses were getting “serious,” CBSSports.com’s Mike Freeman refutes Breer’s claims and labeled the current talks a “ruse.” After speaking with sources on both sides, Freeman believes this second round of mediation is just a “song and dance, ritualistic, done to satisfy Judge Susan Nelson.”

Great. Happy Monday, NFL Fans! There’s still no hope that there will be a season next year!

One thing that I found perplexing about Breer’s report is that he said the two sides were serious about this round of mediation, yet they weren’t going to meet over the weekend. If the players and owners were taking mediation seriously, wouldn’t they want to exhaust their time together by trying to iron out their issues over the weekend? After all, there’s no season next year. It’s not like the owners and players had something more important to take care of last weekend that they couldn’t continue mediation. I get that these people also have lives but if they were taking it seriously and if they were getting somewhere in talks, why halt the discussion?

If you want to remain optimistic about the situation, then sink your hope into Breer’s report. But if you want to be realistic, then Freeman’s story makes more sense. The players are still confident that Judge Nelson will rule in their favor, while the owners believe that they can reverse her decision on appeal. Freeman is probably right in that we’re right back to where we started when the owners locked the players out in March: Nowhere.

Judge Susan Nelson has ordered mediation between the players and owners to begin in Minneapolis on Thursday according to Judy Battista of the New York Times. Judge Arthur Boylan will apparently be the mediator.

The owners wanted mediation to resume under George Cohen, while the players wanted it to take place in federal court. Thus, Judge Nelson’s decision to have mediation begin under Judge Boylan is yet another victory for the players in the current CBA battle.

As Rotoworld.com points out, Peter King predicted on PFT Live on Monday morning that no Collective Bargaining Agreement will be reached soon. King expects a lockout injunction, which means there will be a football season next year but without a CBA (meaning 2011 will be an uncapped year, just as it was in 2010).

At this point, I would have to agree with King’s assessment of the situation in that there won’t be a CBA deal reached soon. The owners appear to be stalling so that the lockout goes into August or September where they can apply the most pressure financially. I’m sure the owners are thinking that if they can get into August or September, the players may start to press or turn against each other when they’re not collecting game checks every week. It’s not a bad strategy on their part, although fans will continue to suffer the longer the lockout goes on.

Hopefully this forced mediation will help, but it appears that we still have a long ways to go before the two sides come to an agreement.

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter via Twitter, Judge Susan Nelson told owners and players that she will impose “forced” mediation” early this week.

From Rotoworld.com:

The NFL desperately wants mediation of a collective bargaining agreement under George Cohen while the NFLPA prefers mediation of their antitrust lawsuit under Nelson’s supervision. Nelson has hinted that she will side with the players, though there is a chance that she will defer to Cohen’s several-week head start on negotiations. Sources on both sides tell CBSSports.com’s Mike Freeman that this round of mediation “might lead to a deal.” Let’s hope so.

Let’s. The best way for these two sides to come to an agreement that works for everybody is if they talk. Leaving it up to the court system is a bad idea because I would have to imagine that one side would walk away a clear winner and the other a clear loser. Granted, there needs to be compromise on both sides but leaving the lines of communication open would seemingly make the most sense.

The NFL and NFLPA are scheduled to speak at 10:00AM Friday with Judge Susan Nelson to discuss the possibility of mediation. Rotoworld.com has the details.

We’re not holding out much hope for immediate progress, but Judge Nelson is at least known for “settling standoffs,” per Judy Battista of the New York Times. The NFLPA stance is that the owners’ offer to resume mediation under George Cohen “makes no sense” as collective bargaining between the two sides is “over.” The players do hold the leverage right now, but they’re also missing out on a chance to hammer out a favorable deal through collective bargaining in lieu of litigation.

Any progress is good progress at this point. Maybe Judge Nelson can convince both sides that it’s best to go through mediation rather than allow the court process to play out. If not, we’re right back where we were when the players decertified and we could be looking at a lengthy lockout.

If the lockout does last another couple of months, I wonder if the owners will eventually crack. The players have been preparing for this moment for the past two years and even put a “lockout fund” together just in case. The owners have dug in their heels and have flexed their muscles a couple of times throughout the last couple of months (or tried to in the case of Jerry Jones), but they were also hoping to fund their lockout using TV contracts. Judge David Doty squashed that plan, so I wonder if the owners will eventually crack the longer the lockout resumes. (Or obviously if Judge Nelson rules in favor of the players and ends the lockout in a couple of weeks.)

We’ll see. (I feel like I’ve said that a lot as it pertains to this CBA mess.)

According to ESPN’s John Clayton in his latest Q&A, the players wanted to return to the negotiating table on March 28, but the owners declined. Apparently the owners refuse to negotiate unless the players recertifiy as a union.

Q: I am a corporate attorney, and I have seen (and been part of) settlement negotiations while litigation is taking its course. Why can’t one or more attorneys for players (if not for the NFLPA, then for some of the named litigants) negotiate with the attorneys for the owners right now? At least in California, settlement negotiations cannot be used in trial, so I see no reason why negotiations could not be going on right now. In any event, isn’t the real problem the refusal of the owners to provide full financial information?

Ed in Aladena, Calif.

A: You are 100 percent correct. Lawyers for the owners refuse to meet with the settlement attorneys for the players unless the trade association identifies itself as a union, which the players won’t do at this time. The players, according to multiple sources, planned to meet with the owners March 28 and spend the week settling this mess. All that had to be done was have a short document go to federal judge Susan Nelson’s court saying that the NFLPA’s executive board would serve as advisors. The NFL’s answer was no. This will be the only way a deal can be reached. Like you, we all wish both sides would go to the bargaining table instead of the courts.

As a fan, it’s frustrating to hear that one side was ready to head back to the bargaining table and the other refused. The quickest way to a resolution is at the negotiating table – not in the courts.

But the owners must believe they have the leg up now that union-friendly Judge David S. Doty is not overseeing the players’ injunction hearing on April 6. As Rotoworld.com points out, if Judge Susan Nelson fails to grant the injunction, then the leverage swings heavily in the owners’ favor. So why would they return to the bargaining tables now? So that they can put an end to this charade and the fans can have a season next year? That’s not what the owners want. They want more money (and in the process, the players to have less of it), which is one of the many reasons why the NFL is currently in this mess.

The momentum has shifted several times over the past couple of months and it appears as though each side is waiting for the other to eventual crumble. Meanwhile, the fans continue to wait.

The bickering between the players and the NFL just got turned up another notch.

Earlier this week, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sent a letter to every player encouraging them to return to the bargaining table. In response, the players sent out their own letter on Saturday that basically told Goodell that they’re not buying what he’s selling.

Here are some of the highlights from the players’ letter (courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle):

We start by reminding you that we were there at the negotiations and know the truth about what happened, which ultimately led the players to renounce the NFLPA’s status as the collective bargaining representative of NFL players. The players took this step only as a last resort, and only after two years of trying to reach a reasonable collective bargaining agreement and three weeks of mediation with George Cohen of FMCS. At all times during the mediation session we had representatives at the table with the authority to make a deal. The NFL representatives at the mediation did not, and the owners were mostly absent.

The NFLPA did all it could to reach a fair collective bargaining agreement and made numerous proposals to address the concerns raised by the owners. In response, the owners never justified their demands for a massive giveback which would have resulted in the worst economic deal for players in major league pro sports.

That is why we were very troubled to see your letter, and repeated press reports by yourself, Jeff Pash, and the owners, which claim that the owners met the players halfway in negotiations, and that the owners offered a fair deal to the players.

Your statements are false.

One point that that players keep making (and it’s a strong one) is that most of the owners weren’t involved in the talks. As Mike Vrabel of the Chiefs has pointed out, Roger Goodell can’t make a deal. Jeff Pash can’t make a deal. Jerry Jones can make a deal. Jerry Richardson can make a deal. The owners can make a deal.

But if the owners aren’t even involved in the negotiations, and I mean sitting at the tables in the flesh, then how is a deal going to get made? I don’t agree with all of the moves that the players have made to this point but that’s one thing I do side with them on. They don’t need Roger Goodell sending them letters telling them to get back to the negotiating table if the owners aren’t even going to be there. No wonder most of them laughed Goodell’s letter off.

That said, the owners claim that their proposal last Friday was in effort to get the players to agree to another extension and to keep the lines of communication open. But according to the NFL, the players never offered a counter-proposal so in my opinion, it sounds like the NFLPA had already made up its mind that it wanted to go to litigation. It sure seems like DeMaurice Smith cares more about going to court than being one of the heroes (and I use that term very, very, VERY loosely) that negotiates a deal so that we can have a season next year.

For the record, I think Goodell’s heart is in the right place. He doesn’t want the courts to decide the fate of the league: he wants the players and owners to. But again, it’s his job to get both sides to the table. He needs to get all of the decision-makers in one room to hash this thing out or else this situation will only get uglier than it already is.