The NFL and NFLPA are meeting for the fourth straight day on Monday with federal mediator George S. Cohen, who helped Major League Soccer avoid a lockout last year and helped Major League Baseball players end their strike in 1995, in an effort to come to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement before the current CBA expires on March 4.
Sunday's meeting between the two sides lasted eight hours, which is the longest period of time that they have met in one day.
The two sides have now met for a total of over 20 hours and there are four days left of scheduled meetings before Cohen.
Both the players and owners representatives were instructed to keep quiet about the negotiations taking place for a new CBA.
"You know we're not going to give you any information," said Batterman on Sunday, when approached for comment. "I can't say anything other than the fact that we are meeting."
The current CBA expires in 10 days and if the two sides don't come to an agreement in that time, the NFL will enter into a lockout. The main issues that the two sides are still arguing over are still the main ones from a month ago: how they will split up their $9 billion a year revenue, having 18 regular season games and only two preseason games, a new rookie pay scale and retired players benefits.
The NFL and NFLPA having their negotiations mediated is a good sign that they may get something done before the March 4 deadline. The two sides went two months without a formal meeting before the Super Bowl on February 5. Now they're being forced to meet, for long periods of time, and hopefully they can come to an agreement before America's favorite sport takes a massive blow.