Court-ordered mediation set for Thursday (AP)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)—Different state. Different mediator. Same disagreements.

One month and two days after the NFL and its players cut off negotiations on
a new collective bargaining agreement and put the 2011 season in peril, the two
sides will return to the table for court-ordered mediation Thursday with a key
legal ruling on the lockout still pending.

NFL executives met with U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan on Wednesday for
five hours the day before the first talks between the league and the players
since the middle of March.

Executive vice president Jeff Pash, the NFL’s lead negotiator, was at the
federal courthouse along with other officials and outside counsel. Lawyers for
the players met with Boylan for about four hours on 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.

Larger contingents are expected on Thursday, when mediation begins in
Boylan’s chambers, including commissioner Roger Goodell himself. League
spokesman Greg Aiello said Goodell will attend along with some of the owners.

This was posted on Goodell’s Twitter feed Wednesday evening: “I am also
looking forward to resuming mediation talks tomorrow with players and their
representatives.”

NFL Players Association executive DeMaurice Smith is scheduled to attend,
too, after withdrawing from a speaking event at Wake Forest so he could be in
Minnesota.

The NFLPA, dissolved by a vote of the players, is now a trade association
and not a 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.

The talks are seen as the first encouraging step since March 11, when the
union was dissolved, the CBA expired and the NFL wound up a few hours later with
its first work stoppage since the 1987 strike. All that has taken place since
then are lawsuits and sharp disagreements between the two sides in one of the
most rancorous sports labor disputes in memory.

The lockout followed 16 days of negotiations overseen by a federal mediator
in Washington, with the league and players failing to agree on how to divide
more than $9 billion in annual revenue.

The owners initially wanted to double the money they get off the top for
expenses from about $1 billion to about $2 billion, but that number decreased
during the last round of mediation. The players have insisted on full financial
disclosure from all 32 teams, and so far the league has not opened the books to
their liking.

Other major issues included benefits for retired players and the NFL’s
desire to stretch the regular season from 16 to 18 games. The NFL also wants to
cut almost 60 percent of guaranteed pay for first-round draft picks, lock them
in for five years and divert the savings to veterans’ salaries and benefits.

More than $525 million went to first-rounders in guaranteed payments in
2010. The league wants to decrease that figure by $300 million, according to
documents obtained by The Associated Press. The NFLPA had no immediate comment.

Boylan has a reputation as a problem-solver, but he may have his work cut
out for him.

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.”

AP Football Writer Barry Wilner in New York contributed to this report.