NFL labor unrest: Negotiations to continue March 1

And so the NFL Players Union and NFL owners are willing to take the negotiations over a new CBA right down to the clock: to March 1 in fact.

All anyone knows right now is that both sides met for over a week, and negotiations are said to have been positive, but nothing seems imminent in completion. The current CBA runs out on March 3, and if there is no deal in place by that date, then the players will be locked out and go on strike.

A lot of the conerns revolve around players' salaries, health benefits after players retire, rookie wage compensation and, finally, the threat of an 18 game schedule which players are not high on.

The fact that talks are "positive" is a big change from a few weeks ago when NFL PA President Kevin Mawae said in an interview with the New York Post that both sides were far apart, and that fans should side with the players on these issues.

If the league goes into a lockout, it will affect a lot of business. Already NFL teams are starting to lay off workers, and some teams have placed franchise tags on some of their fee agents, i.e. the Jets with David Harris, and the Colts with Peyton Manning. But even the legality of franchise tags are being challenged by the NFL PA, but who knows whether these types of contracts will even exist when a new CBA is hammered out.

The mediation, which took over 46 hours over seven days in Washington D.C., resulted in nothing substantive completed or resolved for release to the press.

Say good bye to the 2011 NFL season? We shall see in about a week.