Judge Orders NFL to End Lockout

Professional football players won a significant victory Monday when a federal judge granted an injunction that requires the NFL to lift its six-week lockout. The lockout may continue, though, because the NFL has already filed for a stay. Under the ruling, the NFL would have to put rules in place allowing players to come back to work and permitting free agency to open within days—the regular trappings of the offseason. If the stay is granted, it will cause the lockout to continue and the players will have lost much of their leverage. The players' union dissolved on March 12 as part of the labor dispute with the NFL, and the NFL shut down operations.