NFL to try best for full 2011 season but undecided over deadline for game cancellations
Although the National Football League has not set a deadline for when they will cancel games because of the ongoing NFL lockout, they will “pull every lever” to make sure that there will be a complete 2011 season.
“We don't have a date by which the season is lost, or a date by which we have to move from 16 games to some other (number),” Eric Grubman, the League’s executive vice president for business operations said. “Our intentions are to play a full season, and
we will pull every lever that we can within the flexibility we have or can identify to make that happen.”
Even with the current lockout, Grubman said that the League and teams are getting prepared to start the season off right away when a new collective bargaining agreement is reached. He said, “We have to be able to figure out: When you turn the key, is the
gas going to flow? Is everything going to work?”
The schedule for the 2011 season was released on Tuesday April 19, 2011 and does include some room for adjustment. Even if the season has a delayed start, a full 16-game schedule can be completed if the League eliminates the bye weeks- the week between the
conference championships and the Super Bowl and by pushing the Super Bowl forward by one week.
The League always plans for delays and has a deal with the city of Indianapolis, Indiana to host the Super Bowl in one or two weeks. However, delaying the 2011 season would mean that the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks would not fall in the season.
The NFL is currently planning on how to honour that moment.
“Its national significance is profound,” Grubman said. “And the significance of competitive sports in America is also very profound.”
Working out a revised schedule for the 2011 season is very difficult to do now. It is impossible to know when, or even if, a new labour deal will be made and if there is major progress in labour talks, only then will the League move forward in setting up
plans.
The League and teams have both taken pay cuts to reduce expenses since the lockout began, with Grubman saying that it costs the League about $40 million per week to run. Even the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has taken a pay cut, reducing his salary to
$1 dollar, and received a pay stub for four cents recently. Grubman did, however, say that it is very difficult to prepare for a new season if the League and teams both cut staff.
The League and players are set to resume labour talks on May 16, 2011 while a decision on the players’ request on an injunction for the NFL lockout is expected before then.
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