NEW YORK -- The NFL hasnt set a deadline for when games would be cancelled without a collective bargaining agreement. "We dont have a date by which the season is lost, or a date by which we have to move from 16 games to some other (number)," Eric Grubman, the leagues executive vice-president for business operations, said Friday at a meeting with Associated Press Sports Editors. "Our intentions are to play a full season, and we will pull every lever that we can within the flexibility we have or can identify to make that happen." Even during the lockout, Grubman said, the NFL and teams are working so they will be ready to start the season quickly once a deal is reached. "We have to be able to figure out: When you turn the key, is the gas going to flow?" he said. "Is everything going to work?" The 2011 schedule released Tuesday has games beginning Sept. 8, but includes some wiggle room. The NFL could still squeeze in 16 games with a delayed start by eliminating bye weeks and the week between the conference championships and the Super Bowl. The league also has a deal with host Indianapolis to potentially hold the Super Bowl a week later, stemming from the earlier possibility of playing an 18-game regular season. But a delayed opening would remove a meaningful date from the schedule. For now, the first Sunday of the season falls on the 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and part of the NFLs business-as-usual planning includes deciding how to commemorate that moment. "Its national significance is profound," Grubman said. "And the significance of competitive sports in America is also very profound." Predicting a deadline for when the schedule would have to be revised is difficult because its impossible to know how negotiations will play out. If at some point it becomes clear a deal is near, the NFL can begin setting plans for the upcoming season. If an agreement is reached unexpectedly and rapidly, there might be more lag time before the games start. The league and teams have mostly turned to pay cuts to reduce expenses during the lockout. It costs about US$40 million a week to run the business of the NFL, Grubman said. Commissioner Roger Goodell, whose salary was slashed to $1 during the lockout, recently received a pay stub for four cents. "Theres no possible way we could have a state of readiness and achieve the season quickly if we cut staff and the clubs cut staff," Grubman said. Executive vice-president for football operations Ray Anderson said it was feasible to play fewer than the normal four preseason games, but general managers and coaches would prefer at least two. The two sides took a break from mediation earlier this week after four sessions and arent scheduled to reconvene until May 16. Before then, U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson is expected to decide on the players request to immediately lift the lockout. Goodell said he didnt believe the labour impasse would be resolved through the courts. "I recognize people try to get leverage in negotiations, but at the end of the day its going to come down to the negotiations," said Goodell, who unexpectedly attended the final 10 minutes of the 90-minute meeting. "The sooner we get to that negotiation, the better. "I think the litigation has delayed those negotiations." The NFL has also filed an unfair labour practice charge against the union with the National Labor Relations Board. The board could announce in the next four to six weeks whether it will hear the complaint. NFL officials contend that alone would be significant: If the board started the process, Grubman said, that would indicate it believed the decertified NFL Players Association was still acting as a union, as the NFL has alleged. In other news: -- NFL officials said Goodells chat with Chad Ochocinco, which the Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver tweeted about Thursday, was OK under guidelines restricting communication between the league and players because the conversation was purely social. Goodell said he had chatted with other players during the lockout and would continue to do so. But officials acknowledged the guidelines of whats acceptable behaviour by teams included some grey area. "The easy thing to do is say, You cant call," Grubman said. -- Adolpho Birch, the NFLs senior vice-president of labour policy and player development, emphasized players would still be held accountable under the leagues personal conduct policy for infractions committed during the lockout. -- Grubman said season-ticket sales were strong until CBA negotiations broke off in March and have slowed since, but teams have been particularly hurt by an inability to sign sponsorship deals during the lockout. Ugg Canada Boxing Day Sale . You can watch it live at 6:30pm et/3:30pm pt on TSN and TSN Mobile TV. You can also talk hockey and get updates with TSN.cas Live Game blog. Uggs Canada Sale . Anderson (3-4) allowed three hits, fanned four and walked three, needing just 105 pitches to complete his outing. Brett did a heck of a job. He located well, had a decent fastball. All the guys in the lineup had a hit and thats encouraging, Athletics manager Bob Geren said about his clubs victory. http://www.bootsinsnowsale.com/ .Y. -- The New York Islanders are showing theyre capable of winning on the road. Ugg Canada Clearance . -- The Arizona Cardinals have re-signed defensive end Vonnie Holliday to a one-year contract. Uggs Boxing Day Canada Sale . Andre Iguodala added 18 points and Kenneth Faried had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Nuggets, who improved to 11-2 at home this season after their eight-game winning streak at the Pepsi Center was snapped Thursday in a loss to Minnesota.TORONTO -- Richard Eckersley had hoped to say his Toronto FC farewell on the pitch. But the 24-year-old English fullback will say his goodbyes instead via the media as the MLS club holds its end-of-season wrap Monday -- for the seventh straight year in advance of the playoffs. Eckersley, like striker Danny Koevermans and goalkeeper Stefan Frei, is headed out the door. All three have been deemed surplus to requirements. Eckersleys crime is he is too expensive in a league whose salary cap was US$2.95 million this season. His salary was listed at $90,000 in 2011, $390,000 in 2012 and $310,000 in 2013. Of course the salary cap figures revealed by the MLS Players Union only tell part of the story with clubs able to use allocation money to reduce the amount that is publicly listed. The contracts of Koevermans (only $368,750 of his $1.663 million salary counted against the 2013 salary cap as a designated player) and Frei ($200,000) both expire later this year. But Eckersley has one more year, worth more than $500,000 thanks to a renegotiation to lighten the cap hit this year. Chances are the team will rid itself of that burden, using a once-a-year available buyout that does not count against the salary cap. Eckersley hopes that will lead to a job with another MLS team. "Id definitely like to stay (in MLS). If youre playing for a successful team, I think it would be a great league to play in. Its just that for the last two and a half years weve not been successful. "I like the league, I like how they play." He saw action in just 13 league wins with Toronto. Eckersley played in 72 league games, including 70 starts, in total. Frei played in 82 (all starts) while the injury-plagued Koevermans had 30 games (22 starts). Their departures will leave 22-year-old fullback Ashtone Morgan (66 games) atop the list for league appearances in a Toronto FC shirt. Next on the list are midfielders Reggie Lambe (55 games) and Jeremy Hall (54 games) and 20-year-old defender Doneil Henry (49 games). Eckersley played for Paul Mariner, Torontos former director of player development and manager, while on loan at Plymouth Argyle. A popular player with TFC supporters, Eckersley is an energetic and versatile defender. A full-bodied fullback who loves to race down the flank, he played on the right and left as well as in central defence when needed. He added competitiveness and bite to the Toronto backline. Eckersleys 2013 seasonn was marred by injury, however, and ended early as the team made it clear it was looking to the future.dddddddddddd He was ruled out of a Sept. 14 game in New York because of an injury sustained in training and then sat out the next five games while the team gave Mark Bloom ($46,500) an audition at right fullback. Eckersley never complained publicly. "If the gaffer (manager Ryan Nelsen) feels Im not going to be here next season, then hes going to try to plan for future seasons," he said. His regret is not being able to "say thanks to the fans and wave them goodbye, so to speak." "Theyve been very good to me," he said. "Honestly the supports been fantastic every week -- week in, week out." Eckersleys frustrations started at training camp this year. "I knew that they wanted to look at my contract so I had that in the back of my mind. In pre-season, I was really frustrated and my head was kind of elsewhere. Up until I realized Im just going to play. Im just going to play for me and then if the club sorts it out, then they sort it out." He started the first five games of the season then injured his hamstring celebrating teammate Darel Russells 90th-minute equalizer against FC Dallas on April 6. Eckersley missed the next three months as his hamstring refused to co-operate. He returned July 13 and started 11 games straight before the New York game signalled the beginning of the end. "Its been a frustrating year, but thats football isnt it," he said philosophically. "Youve just got to kind of deal with it. Everyone deals with it in different ways. I just try to get on the training pitch and hopefully good things come from there." Publicly, Nelsen has said Eckersley is a fine player who is a victim of his contract and the MLS salary cap. He jokes that Eckersleys agent did too good a job negotiating the deal. Eckersley, for his part, notes that he arrived on loan so there was plenty of talk with Toronto about wages. Plus the former Manchester United and Burnley product "was on a lot of money in England." "So for me to come out here, I needed decent money, so to speak." Eckersley expects Toronto to do better next year, in his absence. "It will be sad to leave but hopefully Ill go to a successful team. But its been a great two and a half years and I cant really thank the fans and the players enough really." cheap nfl jerseys ' ' '