NFL Lockout: Is the End Finally in Sight?

After three months of tense negotiations and doomsday predictions, the NFL lockout may finally be coming to an end. And a good end, at that.

Mark Maske of the Washington Post shares a great report on Tuesday, speculating that the NFL lockout could end "within the next few weeks."

We can all hope.

NFL owners and players have been negotiating in private for the last 10 days, and it is those lawyer-less negotiations that have produced the most optimistic results from any negotiations this summer. The next big date to mark on your Lockout Calendar is Tuesday, June 21, when owners of all 32 teams will meet in Chicago for lengthy discussions and negotiations.

What do we have to be optimistic about as football fans?

Per Maske,

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"[Owners] have been told to leave their schedules open in case the session runs late that night or spills over into the following day, said several people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the deliberations are at a sensitive stage.

"It is possible—but very unlikely—that the owners could vote on a labor deal at that meeting, said several of the people, who did not participate in the talks but are familiar with developments. It is more likely, they said, that owners could give negotiators their opinions and a deal with the players could be completed the following week."

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That, folks, is great news.

If a deal can be reached in late June, we could see three to four weeks of an "offseason" where free agency is allowed and teams are able to make trades before a late-July training camp start date. This would mean no changes to training camp, preseason games or the start of the NFL regular season.

And now for the bad news.

Others are cautioning that a deal between the league and the players remains less than a certainty and talks still could unravel at some point over the next two weeks. While it is very encouraging that the two sides have been talking at length, the reality is that the two do not necessarily get along very well at the negotiating table.

Maske wraps up with an important note on the talks,

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"People from both sides who are following them closely said the progress made this week will determine what happens at next week’s owners meeting. Any deal would have to be approved by at least 24 of the 32 owners."

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This news is good enough for us all to be encouraged, but the reality remains that nothing is certain at this point and at any time talks could break off. There is an urgency to the talks, as neither side wants to lose games to a lockout.