As the 2011 NFL playoffs continue rolling along, this week has seen a decent amount of news related to the NFL’s labor strife. Until recently most of the press had been negative as both sides have engaged in fairly brutal PR campaigns trying to win the proverbial “hearts and minds” of the fans.
Now we have reports of some optimism, although it remains to be seen how much this source can be believed. Jeff Howe, New England Patriots beat writer for NESN.com, ran off a series of tweets that indicated some level of optimism in all this nonsense. The tweets were discussed in this article at NESN.com.
Howe’s “sources” indicate that an 18-game schedule and a rookie salary scale are basically a done deal, with the 18-game schedule likely being implemented in 2012 instead of 2011. He stated that the biggest hurdle remaining was revenue sharing between the owners.
That would certainly be good news if a lockout was avoided, but before I pop the cork on my champagne I’d like to hear about this from more than just some random team beat writer. I’m sure Howe is a perfectly fine journalist. However, given what we saw during the week leading up to Jim Harbaugh’s hire as the San Francisco 49ers head coach, I’m thinking I’ll wait for some kind of confirmation on this story. Until we hear this kind of stuff from the Adam Schefter’s of the world it’s nothing more than hearsay and speculation. Schefter doesn’t automatically make it legit, but he gives it a certain level of respectability that any random writer doesn’t quite have.