The NFL and the players’ union, whose collective bargaining agreement expires in two weeks, agreed on Thursday to mediation in their labor dispute.
The US Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), which is an independent US government agency, was to begin overseeing the negotiations toward a new contract yesterday in Washington.
FMCS director George Cohen said both sides agreed to have the agency become involved in the talks, although the mediation is not binding.
“Due to the extreme sensitivity of these negotiations and consistent with the FMCS’s long-standing practice, the agency will refrain from any public comment concerning the future schedule and/or the status of those negotiations until further notice,” Cohen said.
NFL owners and players union representatives canceled a planned meeting on Thursday with no new talks in sight and only three weeks before their working agreement expires.
Talks between the parties had stalled last week.
The current collective bargaining agreement between league owners and the union expires on March 3 and union leaders have said they expect owners to lock out players if the deadline passes with no new deal in place.
Not since 1987 has the NFL endured a labor disruption. That year saw three games played with replacement players who crossed picket lines to suit up.
The union contends that 150,000 jobs would be affected throughout the US by a potential work stoppage and cause more than US$160 million in lost revenue in every NFL team’s home area.
Billionaire owners and multimillionaire players are unable to agree on how to divide a king’s ransom of riches from the US’ most popular sport.
Owners want a greater percentage of the league’s US$9 billion in annual revenue, voting in 2008 to end the current deal early in a bid to renegotiate more favorable terms.
Owners hope to enlarge the revenue even more by adding two more games to the regular season and dropping two preseason exhibitions used to determine final rosters. Many teams already charge full price for tickets to preseason games, but could make greater television revenues if they were regular-season matches instead.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB