MINNEAPOLIS (AP)—Attorneys for the NFL met with the federal judge
overseeing court-ordered mediation for five hours Wednesday, one day before the
first talks between the league and its locked-out players since the middle of
last month.
Executive vice president Jeff Pash, the NFL’s lead negotiator, was in
attendance along with other NFL officials and outside counsel. They declined to
comment before sitting down with U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan. Lawyers
for the players met with Boylan for about four hours Tuesday.
“We appreciate the opportunity to meet with the magistrate and review the
issues with him in preparation for our session tomorrow, and we’re looking
forward to seeing the players and their representatives tomorrow morning,” Pash
said. He declined to comment further.
The two sides are scheduled to be in the same room with Boylan on Thursday,
the first meetings since the collective bargaining agreement expired March 11,
the union was dissolved and the NFL wound up with its first work stoppage since
the 1987 strike.
Larger contingents are expected when mediation begins, including
commissioner Roger Goodell himself. League spokesman Greg Aiello told The
Associated Press that Goodell will attend along with some of the owners.
NFL Players Association executive DeMaurice Smith is scheduled to attend,
too, after withdrawing from a speaking event at Wake Forest in North Carolina so
he could be in Minnesota.
The NFLPA, dissolved by a vote of the players, is now a trade association
and not an organized labor union. Smith, an attorney, was formally added to the
legal team last week so he could represent the players in mediation even though
he is no longer their union boss.
Boylan has a reputation as a problem-solver, though what he can accomplish
after more than two weeks of mediated talks fell short last month in Washington
remains to be seen. He has been a magistrate since 1996 and presided over
numerous mediations, including a $195 million settlement between Boston
Scientific and about 4,000 claims involving heart defibrillators and pacemakers
made by Guidant Corp.
The key for Boylan is to make both sides comfortable with his neutrality and
fairness, said Robert Berliner, an attorney who runs the Berliner Group
mediation service in Chicago. He said the judge also has to prove he knows the
subject and is flexible.
Persuasiveness is a must, too.
“I think this is a fascinating opportunity to bring this to a successful
conclusion, but the parties have to be willing,” Berliner said. “The mediator
can only suggest, cajole and work hard to bring them together. He can’t make it
happen, and if the parties aren’t willing to make a deal the best mediator in
the world can’t make it happen.”
U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson, who ordered the mediation, is
still considering a request from the players to lift the lockout imposed by the
owners. After an April 6 hearing, she said she planned to rule on the injunction
request in a couple of weeks.
Players including MVP quarterbacks Tom Brady(notes) and Peyton Manning(notes) filed the
request along with a class-action antitrust suit against the league. The lawsuit
has been combined with two other similar claims from retirees, former players
and rookies-to-be.
For now, at least the two sides will be talking again—even though it’s
under a court order.
“Whether they’ll make progress, it’s really hard to tell,” Berliner said.
“I’d like to think so because I’m firmly a believer that parties are way better
off deciding these issues for themselves than having courts decide them.”