With NFLPA* leadership pulling the plug on any further meetings until Monday and with the NFL believing that it has formally ratified the handshake deal to which the two sides agreed, the immediate and long-term future of the league remains in doubt.
And that makes us wonder what has happened to the man who somehow brokered the transaction, U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan.
Where has Arthur Boylan gone? Has he checked out of the process? Is he in contact with the principals? Has he threatened the NFL with sanctions for violating the confidentiality order by disclosing the terms of the proposed deal publicly?
The mere fact that the NFL has pulled the sheet off the CBA suggests to the neutral observer that the league genuinely believes that a deal has been done. The NFLPA* believes that a deal hasn’t been done. It seems like, of all the people involved in the process, Judge Boylan is in the best position to find out precisely what the hell is going on.
So help us out, Arthur Boylan. A nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Here’s hoping you haven’t left and gone away.