Lockout Limbo: Possible Temporary Stay for Owners

Like many of you, I've been caught up in the draft talk. There are a bunch of options for today, and I'm almost more excited for rounds two and three then I was for round one. We talked a bit about the ruling Judge Nelson made earlier, effectively ending the lockout. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like it will last that long.

Early this morning, reports flew in that the owners were going to be granted a temporary stay by the 8th Circuit. Basically, what this means is that the NFL Lockout would resume, and that the players would be able to air their grievances to the 8th circuit before they made a final ruling (most likely on Monday). This would mean that players would no longer be able to go to workouts, talk to coaches or do anything a player does normally in the offseason.

But then it gets interesting. Besides putting together horrible mock drafts (zing!), ESPN apparently jumped the gun, and now a stay is reportedly "imminent". I don't really believe the talking heads have insider sources to the judges, so we really still have no idea what is going to happen, only what people think might possibly, maybe, eventually happen. Michael Silver at Yahoo! has it down that the players expect a stay, which is probably what started all the confusion in the first place (PFT thinks so). Given the fact that the NFL didn't want to let the players do anything until Nelson spoon-fed the ruling to them, it isn't likely to see any officially organized team meetings until this whole mess is sorted out.

We should have more clarification by the end of the day. So enjoy the football spectacle we call the draft before the barren wasteland sets in. Because it's going to be a long ride until a new CBA is agreed upon.