NFL Lockout: More talks next week

Hard work...American values...4th of July...yada, yada, yada. NFL owners and players are taking a page from the Congressional playbook and breaking talks for the holiday weekend, planning to resume negotiations on Tuesday. The plan is to reconvene in New York next week, with Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith working with the legal teams through Wednesday. Players and owner reps will rejoin the group on Thursday and Friday. Of course, the real question is can they finish a deal by the end of next week?

Progress is in the eye of the beholder. Albert Breer of the NFL Network reports that the two sides did indeed make progress on the issue of the revenue split. How to divvy up the league's immense, growing pool of profits is at the heart of the lockout. 

Keep an eye on the media leaks, starting with Twitter, as to what the shape of that "progress" looks like. Remember, progress doesn't mean settled, but once the revenue issue gets figured out, the rest of the new collective bargaining agreement should be relatively easy to forge. Emphasis on the word :relatively."

More talks next week hew to the news reported by the NYT this morning that a deal could be done during the week of July 10. Remember, most people consider July 15 the drop dead date to preserve the preseason, and even that cuts it a little close for the St. Louis Rams who are scheduled to open training camp a week later. 

Sacrificing three days, holiday or not, is ridiculous at this point; every day matters.