Is The NFL About To Pull Itself Back From The Brink Of Self-Immolation? After extending the deadline for their new collective bargaining agreement 24 hours, NFL owners and players today agreed to extend the deadline again, this time for a full week. This is good news if you believe Michael Silver of Yahoo, who said this morning, ”If enough progress is made that another short-term CBA extension – perhaps a week, perhaps two – is announced by Friday night, the players and owners will almost certainly be headed for a settlement that will result in a multi-year deal before the end of this month.” That’s the good news. The bad news is that if things fall apart next week, and things can always fall apart, then the situation will instantly switch to DefCon 12. So cross your fingers and hope the seven days bring a hefty dose of common sense to the negotiating table. I’m oddly optimistic about all this. Maybe I won’t have send dead flowers to league headquarters after all!  -DM [@AdamSchefter, Yahoo]

Is The NFL About To Pull Itself Back From The Brink Of Self-Immolation? After extending the deadline for their new collective bargaining agreement 24 hours, NFL owners and players today agreed to extend the deadline again, this time for a full week. This is good news if you believe Michael Silver of Yahoo, who said this morning, ”If enough progress is made that another short-term CBA extension – perhaps a week, perhaps two – is announced by Friday night, the players and owners will almost certainly be headed for a settlement that will result in a multi-year deal before the end of this month.” That’s the good news. The bad news is that if things fall apart next week, and things can always fall apart, then the situation will instantly switch to DefCon 12. So cross your fingers and hope the seven days bring a hefty dose of common sense to the negotiating table. I’m oddly optimistic about all this. Maybe I won’t have send dead flowers to league headquarters after all! 

-DM


[@AdamSchefter, Yahoo]