Goodell: NFL mulls contingency plans

A day after the NFL canceled its rookie symposium scheduled for late June, Roger Goodell said the league is starting to consider altering other circles on its calendar.

The commissioner said there is no deadline for a deal to be finalized that would save the 2011 regular season as currently scheduled.

"But that time is coming," he said Wednesday at the end of the spring owners meetings in Indianapolis. The next big date is the Rams-Bears Hall of Fame Game Aug. 7. Teams generally report to training camp in late July.

Those dates have not been altered -- so far.

"We're getting close enough now where those will have to be considerations," Goodell said. "We would prefer to get a negotiated agreement so we don't have to make those decisions."

Colts owner Jim Irsay said this week that he thinks a deal needs to be in place by July 4 to save the season as currently scheduled and avoid the cancellation of preseason games and delays in training camps, all of which would continue the sport's economic decline.

Goodell said the NFL is already feeling the financial effects of the 10-week lockout.

"Clearly it has had an impact on our fans already,'' he said. "You see it in various metrics. There's been a noticeable change, TV ratings were down on the draft roughly 4 million people. NFL.com traffic [is down], we see that."

Goodell said he is still optimistic that the full schedule will be played. Discussions with owners this week revolved around plans for opening weekend and the commemorations of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. But the NFL also is facing the grim reality that those plans could be for naught.

"I would say we have contingency plans for our contingency plans," Goodell said.

Coaches back players. The NFL Coaches Association filed an amicus brief with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday siding with the players and asking the judges to lift the lockout. The brief argues that the lockout could cause professional harm to coaches.