The guarded optimism of last week seems to have turned into pessimism and sniping as the deadline for a new CBA looms just mere hours away. While, the two sides reportedly have agreed on some points this week it seems now that they're far enough apart on some major issues that a court battle just might be the most likely scenario.
Case in point, check out this exchange on twitter between the spokesmen for the owners and players. The owners' lead counsel Jeff Pash seemed to question the players' commitment to the negations.
I've said it many times — if both sides have an equal commitment to getting this deal done, it will get done. I don't know if both sides have an equal commitment. You've heard plenty of what I've heard as well. If that's the case — if both sides are committed — there's a deal to be made.
So NFLPA spokesman George Atallah shoots back,
"If owners continue to ? players' commitment to negotiations, we're prepared 2 make public all our unanswered proposals."
Ok, that seems reasonable... But then he got a little more nasty after a negotiating session.
I would like to request an expense credit from the owners on the last 3 hours of my life.
Then, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello responds
While George is at it, ask him when is union going to respond to our 150 pages of draft CBA provisions ...
The obvious implication from both sides is that the other doesn't seem to be taking it seriously enough. Atallah thinks the owners wasting time by making the proposals they have, but Aiello sees the players as failing to negotiate by not responding to the owners' proposals.
So close to the doomsday deadline, this isn't the kind of rhetoric you want to be hearing.