An NFL Lockout still looms over the 2011 football season, but Thursday's deadline was averted when players and owners agreed to an oft-rumored 24-hour extension. The Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NFL and the NFLPA was about to expire Thursday at midnight, but despite their continued disagreements—particularly on the question of the extended season championed by Roger Goodell—the two sides will talk for at least one more day.
Unfortunately, neither side seems any closer to budging than they were the day before. Both sides have serious, structural problems with the way the NFL is currently operating, and there's not a lot of common ground between "We should have an 18-game season and pay you less" and "You should have a 16-game season and pay us more." ("We should have a 17-game season and pay you the same" doesn't fit quite so neatly as you'd expect.)
But hope springs eternal, and so, hopefully, will 24-hour extensions. Both sides still have their guns drawn, but neither has any desire to pull the trigger and get all that fan angst on their nice new shirt.