DALLAS (AP) —An outside labor lawyer for the NFL says the league’s owners are as unified right now as NHL owners were when that sport lost an entire season to a lockout.
Bob Batterman said Wednesday that the owners of the NFL’s 32 teams “know what’s wrong with the business today, and know how it needs to be changed.”
He said the “only other time” he’s seen club owners show such “complete unity” was when he worked for the NHL during its labor problems that led to the 2004-05 season being wiped out.
Batterman spoke after a pre-Super Bowl news conference held by Jeff Pash, the NFL’s lead in-house negotiator. Pash emphasized the “considerable significance” of reaching a deal with the players’ union by early March, when the current collective bargaining agreement expires.
