CBA in the Redzone

The good news is that a new CBA seems to be just around the corner. The bad news is that we're using obscure football analogies to describe the CBA talks.

"I spent Wednesday posing questions like those to sources within the NFL, asking in essence if the league and its players are on the 5-yard line of this long and arduous march toward a deal, or if this particular drive still threatens to come up short and potentially wreck the 2011 season. If there was a consensus opinion, it might have been that both scenarios remain possible, with perhaps a slight quibble over how favorable the current field position should be characterized.

"I'd say that back in March, we weren't in the same stadium," said one league source of the players and owners. "But if you think of both sides as a team, now we're in the red zone, we're driving, we can see the goal line and we have momentum. But can we still screw it up? Absolutely. That's why tomorrow and Friday are big days, because it's back to the (negotiating) formula that's been most successful.''