“We can’t be forced into a deal, period.  It will take time to review the proposal”, Spikes said on Sports Center.

What seemed like a done deal now looks nowhere near being completed.  The players feel the owners are making a power grab and are placing them into a bad position to force them to accept a bad deal.  This whole week I have been checking the news throughout the day to hear word of the lockout officially being over.  At the beginning of the week I was more optimistic of the 2011 NFL season starting this week, now at the end of the week it seems like the lockout will continue until who knows when.  When asked if Spikes expects a vote to happen on Friday he responded, “A vote will happen when a fair deal is reached.”  Not exactly an encouraging statement by the 49ers player representative.

UPDATE:  “The NFL and the NFL Players Association have mutually agreed to a seven-day extension of the collective bargaining agreement, and the sides will resume labor negotiations Monday under the continued supervision of federal mediator George Cohen.”  Read more

When it comes labor lockouts and sports, having to pick between millionaires (players) and billionaires (owners), I normally fall into the category of supporting neither.  I just want to see the sport played as regularly scheduled and how the players and owners divvy up what we the fans spend collectively on their product is not a concern to us.  No matter which side you think is right, or neither, lockouts also affect the fans and the communities they live in.  All the jobs created for residents at their teams stadium and the taxes collected by the cities that teams call home would be gone with a lockout.  And all for what?  So billionaires can have more money in the bank at the expense of the players and fans?  One of the biggest complaints from NFL owners concerning the collective bargaining agreement is they need more money, an extra $1 billion of the top, to build new stadiums.  This translates to the owners making more money for themselves with bigger stadiums with more luxury seats, concessions and teams selling personal seat licenses.  Nothing will guarantee your team will turn into a winner with a new stadium while at the same time the owners also use taxpayer money to build the new stadiums.

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Whether or not there is a lockout come Friday 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh has one pressing issue, quarterback.  Come midnight on March 4 if there is no new collective bargaining agreement in place the NFL owners will lockout the players.  This affects Harbaugh in that he cannot workout players currently on the roster and there will be no free agency until a new CBA is worked out.  A lot of buzz has been made about Harbaugh talking with quarterback Alex Smith, so much so the NFL has threaten fines and loss of draft picks if Harbaugh and Smith continue to talk during the lockout.  Harbaugh and Smith’s agent have been in contact about resigning the quarterback.

“I’m hopeful that Alex, as an unrestricted free agent, will choose that his next team to play with, the fresh start, is with the San Francisco 49ers.  I’m on record as saying I very much like Alex.  I like being around Alex.  I’ve had a lot of opportunity to be around him.”  Jim Harbaugh

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