NFL News: League Nearing Doomsday Situation As CBA Talks Are Canceled

I have avoided talking about the collective bargaining agreement for as long as I could, but it now appears to be time to explain the situation, the deadlines, and the ramifications if a deal is not in place soon.

The news broke this morning that both the owners and players association would be calling off their scheduled meeting today after reportedly meeting for upwards of 10 hours yesterday with little to no progress. 

It’s also been reported that the meeting for next week has been canceled as well, and if that report proves to be true, the chances of a lockout will almost instantly double.

The reason for this is that there is a March 3rd deadline to have a new agreement in place, otherwise, teams will be unable to make trades and players will not become free agents; therefore, they will be locked out without deals to any teams. If the league and its players cannot reach a compromise by that deadline, the talks will likely be put on hold until right before the season.

The situation is getting uglier by the day.

The chances of them coming to terms before that March deadline are becoming more of a pipe dream than reality. If the talks head into the middle of the summer, the league will suffer gigantic losses in merchandising, ticket sales, sponsors, and more.

The players will also be losing out big since they will be locked to their current team well into the summer and cannot blend with their new team anytime soon. They also will be unable to test the waters of free agency.

Fortunately, fans will still get to enjoy the NFL draft and the scouting combine, but will not see trades, free agency, and mini-camps until something is worked out. This will be a major letdown, as the NFL prides itself on being a year-round sport that always gives the fans something to look forward to.

The league and players are mainly fighting over the money the players get in comparison to the owners. Players take far more of the NFL pie than the owners, and the players are so heavily overpaid that it's hardly fair to the owners.

Some of the other issues include revenue sharing, rookie salary cap, the proposed 18 game schedule—that the players hate—and overall issues with pay rates.

The league has not hit the panic button quite yet, but they certainly now have their fingers on it. For the rest of the world, we will have to wait and see if our nation's most popular sport will be in full swing in 2011, and if so, what major changes we will see across the board.

The NFL sky is falling and the clock is ticking.

Update: The CBA talks broke down due to union proposing a 50-50 split of all revenue. This is per Chris Mortensen of ESPN.

Update 2: The league and players association has reportedly "taken a few steps back", and things are not looking good to get a new deal signed by March 4th when the previous one is set to expire.