The NFL cleared the way for some of its basic football operations to begin at 8 a.m. ET Friday, five days after a federal judge declared the lockout illegal and nearly seven weeks after it began and the players immediately took advantage. For the first time all offseason, players have been cleared to talk with coaches, work out at team headquarters and get playbooks. All were turned away from team facilities in the four days after U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson's decision to lift the owner-imposed lockout. "Everybody's tired of sitting around, laying around," Denver Broncos linebacker Joe Mays said on Thursday. "We've had enough of that. Now, we're trying to get back to business." The owners and players have been embroiled in a bitter battle over how the NFL's $9 billion pie is sliced, a fight that has been taken to the courts. Source: Associated Press
