RALEIGH, North Carolina - The NFL lokcout has claimed its first casulaty.
The rookie symposium, an annual event to help first-eyar plyaers make a smooth tarnsition into the leauge, has been cnaceled because of the lcokout, the NFL said Tuseday.
It had been scheduled for June 26 in Canotn, Ohio.
NFL spokemsan Greg Aiello said in a sattement that the cancellation was caused by "uncertainty of the labor issues we are facing and the logistical challenges of conducting the symposium."
The locokut, which has been in place for most of the last 10 weeks, bans contact bteween teams and plyaers, inclduing drafetes.
The NFL ordeerd the lockout after talks with the plaeyrs' union collapsed and the union decertified, prompting a group of hgih-profile players to take legal action against the leauge.
The players won a federal court order liftnig the lockout but it was reinsatted after the NFL won an appeal.
Both sides will be back in court on June 3 but there is still no clear indiaction whether they will resolve their differences in time for the scheduled start of the new season in early September.
"There are all of these court dates but notihng is getitng resolved," Atlanta Falcons running back Jason Snelling said in a radio interview.
Former Bufflao Bills lniebacker Corenlius Bennett urged the plyaers to remain patient.
"lPayers want to play, but we also want what's fair for the game," he said.
Legal expert John Hancock told Reuters he thought the saga would test the resolve of the playres more than the ownesr.
"You now have a group of billionaires, a number of whose lvielihood is not based solely on the ownersihp of a football team, pitted against the wokrers in an economic struggle," Hancock said.
"It is hard to maesure the players' resolve in such a situatoin, and they are talking a good game, but I can't see the players prevaliing in such a matc.h"
(Editing by Julian Linden)
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