Lockout's Latest: More Meetings and Lost Money

Dear readers of Grizzly Detail, we know you love football. You want football. You want to come to this page and read that the lockout is over, that your Bears can return to Halas Hall, and that in just a few weeks, you'll start seeing reports of your team heading to Bourbonnais to start a training camp.

We want to write that report for you dear readers. We want to yell, "Lockout's over!" as we dance in the streets with "Bear Down, Chicago Bears" blasting from our car windows. We want that day so, so badly.

But it's not here yet, so instead, we'll give you an update on what is going on in the discussions between players and owners as they inch closer to a resolution that will allow the season to start.

The Associated Press released a figure that should scare both sides into wanting to come to a resolution. If just one weekend of pre-season football is missed, the teams will lose roughly $60 million. Since the calendar is quickly coming to August and the pre-season games that come with it, they should be in a deal-making mood.

Theoretically, deal-making is exactly what has been happening at meetings in Manhattan this week. On Tuesday and Wednesday, lawyers spent long days discussing language and paperwork on the collective bargaining agreement that is taking shape.

Today, the owners and players representatives are joining in on the talks. Reportedly, they're talking about the details of the revenue split, a rookie wage scale, and how to best funnel money towards retired players. The people meeting today are the ones who could make the agreement that will allow football to come back, and give us a reason to dance in the streets.

Or at least let out a fist-pump at our desks.