Owners and Players Keep Talking About a New CBA

20 hours.

That’s how long the two sides have been talking in the case of the NFL Players Association and Owners when it comes to mediated negotiations toward a new NFL labor deal.

The sides met for about eight hours Sunday, the third consecutive day the league and its players’ union met to try to find common ground before the current contract expires.

NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith didn’t stop for questions as he left the Washington office of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, a U.S. government agency, shortly after 6 p.m. He and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell arrived shortly before 10 a.m.

Sunday was the third straight and longest day the two sides have talked. A good sign.

Both sides are not speaking, and it is starting to sound like some ground has been made as the sides try to hammer out a new deal before March 3rd.

“You know we’re not going to give you any information,” NFL outside lawyer Bob Batterman said as he left with three league executives. “I can’t say anything, other than the fact that we are meeting.”