With the labor negotiations 'at the 5-yard line,' can NFL punch it in?

Don Banks:

With face-to-face negotiations between the principle figures involved in the NFL's labor fight scheduled to again resume Thursday in New York, many observers believe the end game to this messy, four-month test of wills and wallets has at last come into view.

Or at least they desperately want to believe it. But has it really?

But:

"It does feel like we're at the 5-yard line, and we're right there," one NFL general manager said Wednesday. "But it's like Jerome Bettis has the ball, and I've seen him fumble on the 1-yard line before. If there's a fumble now, hopefully either Goodell or Smith plays Ben Roethlisberger and stops the whole thing from falling apart."

Oh come on, man, he only had that one bad fumble! Or maybe two, I dunno, but still: he almost always got over the goal line. You, NFL, had better do the same. Scrap half the pre-season if you have to. Just get us to opening day.

And that GM better hope Bettis never finds out who he is.