NFL owners and players met Tuesday in Washington for three hours for their second round of collective bargaining negotiations. Nothing was accomplished (the union was upset, actually, that commissioner Roger Goodell was not in attendance), and no date is set for the next round of negotiations. But just as he did the day after the first negotiating session, union chief DeMaurice Smith is heading Wednesday to Capitol Hill.Smith will bring 17 active players from 15 different NFL teams, including Kansas City's Mike Vrabel, Tennessee's Kevin Mawae and Baltimore's Domonique Foxworth, plus three retired players with him for meetings with congressional leaders. The point of the meetings is to stay on the attack. As he first told FanHouse last month, Smith believes the owners are planning to lock out the players in 2011, and both sides are working against a March deadline after which the 2010 season would be played without a salary cap and a 2011 lockout would be more difficult to prevent. So Smith is remaining in contact with Congress because it can help him with two specific threats against the league.
