Goodell wants a deal sooner rather than later

Sunday, February 06 2011

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Friday that team owners are committed to working out a collective bargaining agreement with players and are ready to engage in "intense negotiations" with the NFL Players Assn. to get one done. This article was written by Sam Farmer and appeared in The Los Angeles Times.

The current deal expires after March 3, opening the door to a lockout that could threaten training camp and possibly games in the 2011 season.

Goodell, speaking at his annual pre-Super Bowl news conference, said he hopes something can be worked out "in the next few weeks."

"This is the window of opportunity to get this done right," he said. "Otherwise, uncertainty is going to seep into all of our operations ... I say, let's get to work, let's get an agreement that works for everybody."

Goodell spoke on several other topics:

•On an 18-game regular season: "Repeatedly, the fans have said the quality of the preseason doesn't meet NFL standards. That is one of the basis on which we started to look at the 18-and-two concept, by taking two of those low quality, non-competitive games and turn those into quality, competitive games that the fans want to see; they want to support."

On the $700-million naming-rights deal for a potential stadium in downtown Los Angeles: "It's obviously a positive development because it's an important revenue stream, but even with that positive development the financing of the stadium in Los Angeles is still a very difficult proposition. We have to get the Collective Bargaining Agreement addressed in such a way as to make it so that it is a smart investment that can be financed so that we can create the kind of economic activity in Los Angeles that I believe can happen if we're successful, whether it be in downtown or out in the City of Industry."

On reports that Philadelphia quarterback Michael Vick was planning a Super Bowl party, and whether that was appropriate for a man with his past: "I spoke to Michael three times in the last two weeks about his schedule here — what he'd be doing. He has said that on numerous occasions people have been using his name about being involved in some type of party, but that he had no intention of participating in that."