Pats Owner on Lockout: "I think we’re getting close to having to put this thing to bed"

“I think we’re getting close to having to put this thing to bed, so we don’t miss any events."

- Robert Kraft, owner of the Patriots as per Boston Herald article

On the NFL lockout, Kraft feels that the NFL and players are "further along than they had been when the lockout started in March". This is according to Karen Guregian’s article in the Herald.

Kraft also addressed the ongoing litigation: “… the good news is we’re talking. I think we went 34 days without having communications, and the lawyers on each side were doing stuff. That, to me, isn’t progress”.

It is important to remember that the players sued the owners, and the owners were forced into litigation. Once the Appeals Court dropped the lockout back in place, and suggested that it may stay there for an indefinite period of time, the players were given a serious incentive to start negotiating in a meaningful way.

So  litigation did serve a purpose in this case - providing that incentive to talk. Of course, there is the argument that the parties should have never been involved in litigation in the first place. Deals are not made in the Courts, but rather at the negotiating table.

Tough to argue with that.