A steady stream of cars passed in and out of the gated parking lot at the Broncos’ Dove Valley headquarters Tuesday morning. None of them, however, was driven by a Denver player.
The day after a judge in Minnesota ended the 45-day lockout, at least temporarily allowing NFL players to return to their teams’ training facilities, Broncos players stayed away.
Had they arrived, they would have been allowed inside the doors but likely would have been barred from working out in the team’s weight room and from having meetings with coaches.
Such was the reality of a league in limbo as everyone waits for the next step in the labor battle between the players and owners.
U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson said Tuesday she would take at least another day before deciding whether to issue a stay, which would put her order to lift the lockout on hold while the NFL appeals.
Broncos players were told they could show up at Dove Valley, but there was no organized movement among them. A number of Denver players, along with former Broncos and other players with local ties, have been working out on their own at a gym not far from Dove Valley. Without access to the weight room at Dove Valley — players are not allowed inside unsupervised, and no workouts had been scheduled with Broncos strength and conditioning coach Rich Tuten — there was little reason to show up.
With the team scattered during the lockout, some Broncos are working out in Miami and Arizona.
Elsewhere in the NFL on Tuesday, small groups of players decided to test the judge’s ruling and were met with mixed results.
Josh Cribbs, Ben Watson and Reggie Hodges arrived at the Browns’ training facility and were greeted by Lew Merletti, the team’s senior vice president and director of security. Merletti handed them an official letter.
“It basically told us to be patient,” Cribbs said. “It let us know we can’t go upstairs and can’t have any personal contact with coaches or staff. It was kind of awkward because we don’t talk to our security staff unless there is a security issue, so the security issue was us.”
Buffalo cornerback Leodis McKelvin was turned away at the security gate of his team’s complex and told to expect a call from his coach for clarity on when he could return.
Nelson lifted the lockout Monday, writing in an 89-page order that she believed it is causing “irreparable harm” to the players.
The NFL questioned whether she had exceeded her juris-diction and said it would seek an immediate stay of her ruling as well as relief from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.
Nelson has given the players until 8 a.m. MDT today to reply to the NFL’s expedited motion for a stay. But if her injunction is upheld — by the judge herself or by the appellate court — the NFL must resume business in some fashion.
It could invoke the 2010 rules for free agency, meaning players would need six seasons of service before becoming unrestricted free agents when their contracts expire; previously, it was four years. The requirement for restricted free agents would be four years rather than the three years before 2010.
There also was no salary cap in 2010, meaning teams could spend as much — or as little — as they wanted.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Lindsay H. Jones: 303-954-1262 or ljones@denverpost.com
