from Elliotte Friedman of CBC,

Soon, we're going to get through the phony posturing, the silly public-relations exercises. Meetings will happen without us knowing, they won't end in less time than it takes me to eat a tasty Peanut Buster Parfait and there won't be 850 people attending them.

Everyone's annoyed tonight. It doesn't look good, but we are gaining momentum. There are more proposals being exchanged, more meetings between the two sides. We know the cornerstone issues for the players and the owners.

It would be great if there was none of this aggravation, but as one player said back in 2004, "We're all pawns in this game."

read on for Friedman's newest idea in regards to the contract talks...