The NFL owners and NFL Players Association agreed to a 24-hour extension in their negotiations, according to multiple reports. The Collective Bargaining Agreement originally expired at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday. Now that has been moved back a day.
It doesn't sound like a new deal will be struck by tomorrow night but various reports suggest the reason for the extension was to buy more time to negotiate another longer extension, perhaps a week. That would give the two sides enough time to make real progress.
It's unclear where the sides stand on the major issues but simply talking, and agreeing to an extension, is more tangible progress than we've seen throughout this process.
Following Thursday's meetings, here's what NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said:
"For all of our fans who dig our game, we appreciate your patience as we work through this," Smith said, invoking one of his favorite words (and, yes, we can dig it). "We're gonna keep working. We want to play football."
And the federal mediator involved in the negotiations also confirmed there would be a one-day extension.
So for now...we wait.