By Tom E. Curran
CSNNE.com
You've long since been snowed under by the legalese. You no longer care who's right because they're both kinda wrong. But you do want to know what might happen Friday in court that will affect the entertainment product called the NFL you've grown to love. Well, you stopped by the right blog. The NFL is appealing the decision rendered by Judge Susan Nelson that the owners must lift their lockout. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, where this is being heard, will hear oral arguments from both sides and decide whether to agree with Nelson andlift the lockout, or overturn her decision and let this madness roll on. The decision won't be immediate (Internet strongman Mike Florio from PFT gets into deeper legal detail on what to expecthere). Could be a week. Could be - as Florio guesses - as much as a month. Now, this appeals court is the one that ordered a "stay" of Nelson's order to lift the lockout while we waited for the real appeal to be heard. That's why we had that weirdness in late April where the lockout was gone for about 24 hours. The fact that several players and owners met Tuesday through Thursday of this week without a passel of attorneys is encouraging. But progress has seemingly been lost when the courts get involved because their rulings embolden whichever side prevails to keep pushing their "correct" agenda and the losers are prone to appeal. And that just drags the whole thing out further. So listen closely to the post-game comments after this hearing to see how rancorous they are. From my viewpoint, Robert Kraft has been right about one thing all along - the only thing standing in the way of getting a deal done is the lawyers.
Tom E. Curran can be reached at tcurran@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Tom on Twitter at http:twitter.comtomecurran.