Published: 3/4/2011 - Updated: 2 years ago

NFL and union extend contract for 7 days

ASSOCIATED PRESS

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell goes through the revolving door as he arrives for football labor negotiations with the NFL players involving a federal mediator, Friday in Washington. ASSOCIATED PRESS Enlarge

WASHINGTON — The NFL and the players' union agreed Friday on a seven-day extension of the collective bargaining agreement.

It's the second such extension. The CBA was set to expire at the end of Thursday, but a 24-hour reprieve was granted. Now, the sides have until midnight of next Friday going into March 12 to work on a new deal. Talks will resume on Monday.

Federal mediator George Cohen announced the extension, which was approved on the NFL's side by its owners' labor committee. Then the union held a vote of its executive committee.

NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith planned to speak to the media at union headquarters at 3 p.m. EST, the same time as NFL lead negotiator Jeff Pash was expected to discuss Friday's developments two blocks away at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service building.

If the CBA were to expire, it could mean the end of decades of labor peace for the nation's most popular pro sports league. The owners could lock out the players, and the union could decertify to try and prevent that through the courts — something the NFLPA did in 1989.

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