We opened our most recent lockout item with a good-natured jab at the new report from ESPN’s Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter, which a cynic could regard as an effort to claim eventual credit for first reporting the end to the lockout while also avoiding any criticism for being wrong if a deal isn’t struck and ratified on July 21.
A cynic would now wonder whether Schefter and Mort opted to make their safe harbor a lot safer with the addition of two new paragraphs that remind the world that the process is far from a done deal.
"[O]ne member of the players’ negotiating team who has been a constant presence at the table said that players feel they have made significant concessions and overtures ‘that have not been reciprocated,’” the story now reads.
“He stated that negotiations Wednesday and Thursday will be the most telling days on whether an agreement indeed will be finalized within the July 21 time frame because ‘we’ve basically reached the limits of compromise.’”
Actually, that’s more than a safe harbor. Mort and Schefty are now fully covered on both sides of the story. If the deal get done on July 21, you heard it there first.
And if it doesn’t, you heard it there first, too.