The renewed urgency that marked Thursday’s all-day labor session will not continue over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
Albert Breer of NFL Network reports that the latest round of labor talks in Minnesota will wrap up shortly on Friday before reconvening Tuesday in New York City. Both sides are updating their constituencies via conference calls this morning before breaking for the weekend.
The plan is for Commissioner Roger Goodell, NFLPA* head DeMaurice Smith, and their legal teams to be in New York Tuesday and Wednesday. Players and owners will join Thursday and Friday in a schedule similar to the one from this week.
“We’ll continue to meet next week and goal is to get a deal done,” Smith said.
Work can be done when the parties are not together. Still, nothing replaces actual negotiations. We hate to see the two sides give up any of the momentum that they built late Thursday night.
The negotiations have reached a critical stage and any time spent away from hammering a deal out all day seems like time wasted.
UPDATE: Two sides are on the way out of Minnesota, a little before noon ET.