Federal Judge Susan Nelson rejected the National Football League's request for a stay, further reiterating that the NFL is no longer under a lockout and that the new league year is to begin immediately. Does that mean a new league will start? According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, there's "no indication league will commence new league year yet." The NFL's next move is to request a stay from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit.
Additionally, Judge Nelson said that "no team is obligated to to sign free agents" while trades are still "in question." National Football Post's Aaron Wilson writes that as a result, "collusion cases could be made" if teams are actively working together by not signing any free agents. And if the league stalls to fulfill Nelson's order that the league year begin immediately, the more the league risks being in contempt of Judge Nelson's order.
As far as we know, and trust me we don't know nor do we pretend to know, what exactly this all means -- with the best Jerry Narron impression we can offer, "we're football guys."
However the impression we do have is that with all that's happened, nothing will happen for now even though the league is ordered to lift the lockout and to get started with the league year.