NFL and Union Back to Negotiating

After a 24 hour extension of the collective bargaining agreement was agreed upon last night, both sides are back at the table trying to find a happy medium. The lockout will begin at midnight tonight if no deal or extension isn't agreed to.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and several league executives arrived at the offices of federal mediator George Cohen in the morning, with the current collective bargaining agreement set to expire at midnight. Both groups agreed to a 24-hour extension on Thursday, with another extension on the agenda.

NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith and Kansas City Chiefs guard Brian Waters showed up about two hours later. Each side had been expected to meet separately with Cohen before any negotiations would be held.

"If we can make the kind of progress that you needed to make to have a further extension, that's where we'd be looking," NFL lead negotiator Jeff Pash said before heading in to meet with Cohen. "Hopefully, we can make some progress and keep this thing going. That's obviously in everybody's interest. It's been our goal all along and we're going to just keep at it."

Goodell said, "We're going back to work hard again," but gave no indication what he expects to happen.

If the CBA expires the owners could lock out the players, and the union could decertify to try and prevent that through the courts — something the NFLPA did in 1989.

"For all our fans who dig our game, we appreciate your patience as we work through this," union executive director DeMaurice Smith said as he emerged from talks Thursday that resulted in the one-day extension. "We are going to keep working. We want to play football."

via Yahoo!