Your Black Sports: NFL Lockout in 2010?
The NFL players’ union plans to pick a successor for the late Gene Upshaw early this year, and sees no reason to expect a lockout in two years.
Owners are opting out of the current labor deal after the 2010 season, however, the union said it didn’t anticipate trouble.
“This is a good thing we have going on between the players and owners,” president Kevin Mawae said Thursday in the NFL Players Association’s first news conference since Upshaw died in August. “The players don’t feel we have to get to that point.”
The five finalists to replace Upshaw, as reported last week by The Associated Press, are former NFLPA presidents Troy Vincent and Trace Armstrong; former Bears tackle Jim Covert; Ben Utt, who played for Baltimore and Indianapolis; and Washington-based attorney DeMaurice Smith.
