NEW YORK (AP) - NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell doesn’t expect labor talks to resume until after a U.S. District Court judge rules on the players’ injunction to stop the lockout.
Appearing on NFL Network, Goodell said Tuesday night that there has been virtually no dialogue with the NFL Players Association since mediated negotiations collapsed last Friday.
“I think we’re in a period where litigation and the litigation strategy … is ongoing. That will have to play out for the next couple weeks,” he said.
“For us to go back to mediation, you call me and we’ll be there,” Goodell said. “Any contact with the trade association or any discussion, for lack of better phrase, about trying to put this genie back in the bottle? There’s, unfortunately, been very limited contact.”
Goodell echoed what league managers and owners said last weekend: owners provided more financial information to the players than ever before, including some data not made available to the 32 clubs. Included were audited financial details spanning five years that would show the NFLPA profits on a league-wide and club-wide basis.
“That was information that they had asked for several times before,” he said. “So it was information that we thought was responsive to what they were asking for, but also something that if they really did feel this was going to help move the ball they would have accepted, taken that information, and we would have been able to reach an agreement.”
The players rejected the data, saying it was not what they requested. NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith called the information “utterly meaningless.”
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