After four months of posturing and negotiating, the NFL lockout is finally over.

With the NFL Players Association executive board and 32 team reps voted unanimously Monday the league is looking at 10 years of labor peace, with the players opting out of a late push for an opt-out clause after the seventh season.

The only real casualty from most NFL fans’ perspective — aside from those who worship at the altars of organized training activities and getting their fantasy teams together early — is the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio. The Aug. 7 meeting the Chicago Bears and St. Louis Rams was sacked when final negotiations lagged.

However, NBC’s coverage of the Green Bay Packers-New Orleans Saints season opener on Thursday Sept. 8 and all of the networks’ exciting exhibition game action that precedes it will remain on your remote.

Actually, preseason 2013 could be noteworthy, as the owners likely will be whistled for illegal procedure. Beginning in 2013, the NFL can shift to a 16-game regular season-and-two-exhibition-game format without the input or approval of the recertified NFL Players Association, according to ProFootballTalk.com. As such, the players would lose their 48% share of the revenue tied to the missing contests. The owners, which entered the just-completed negotiations with an eye on instituting an 18-game regular-season schedule that would have left only a pair of the relatively meaningless preseason contests, figure to revisit their quest to expand the current 16-game regular-season schedules.

NFL officials didn’t return phone calls by press time.

The league’s TV contracts with CBS, Fox, ESPN and NBC all end after the 2013 season, while DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket package expires upon the conclusion of the following campaign. [It should be noted that ESPN has already reportedly signed a long-term extension with the league, the announcement of which has been forestalled by the labor dispute].

Although the players have been steadfast in their opposition to the extra contests for health reasons — and some view the games as dilutive from inventory and interest perspectives — any additional real contests would up the ante in new rights deals.

Going to 18 games could also set the table for the NFL to offer another Thursday Night Football package, a move that was being discussed for the 2012 season. That gambit ultimately was tackled during the negotiations, leaving NFL Network in that position — at least for the next couple of seasons.

Expanded and more lucrative TV and media packages would certainly benefit the fiscal interests of the players, who stand to take home 55% of the monies from such deals under the new collective bargaining agreement.

All told, the players will receive at minimum 47% of all league revenue under the new contract. That ratio is down from the 50%-50% split with the owners under the deal that expired with the 2010-11 season. However, management took $1 billion off the top of the league’s $9 billion in revenue last season before that ratio was applied.

Under the new collective bargaining agreement, the players have agreed to take less, but their cut will be determined from an “all revenue” pie. Fueled in part by higher media deals – ESPN’s reported new Monday Night Football and highlights pact will jump to $1.9 billion per season from $1.1 billion now — that total will grow substantially over the life of the deal.

Some reports estimate the total at some $12 billion to 15 billion per season, with projections reaching the $20 billion mark toward the latter part of the contract.

A goal in the waning moments of extra time. A penalty kick victory.

The U.S. had been down this path versus Brazil during the quarterfinals in Dresden on July 10.  On Sunday in the final at Frankfurt, Japan wrote a similar script to win the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup that left the Americans the runner-ups in Germany.

It was a classic match, but forgive Pia Sunhage’s squad if it calls for rewrite. The U.S. squandered a pair of one-goal leads that would have given the Americans three of the six Women’s World Cups contested to date. Unlike their match last Sunday against Brazil and their 1999 forbears against China, when Briana Scurry made her stop and Brandi Chastain bared her midriff after the Cup clincher in the Rose Bowl, the U.S. collapsed during the PK session in Frankfurt.

Instead, Japan penned its own Hollywood ending, its fortitude and perseverance both Oscar-worthy, with a finish that perhaps removes some of the pain and loss tied to the earthquake and resultant tsunami that devastated the island nation in March.

The U.S. dominated play throughout much of the first half against Japan, with a number of legitimate chances, notably Lauren Cheney’s deflection that went past the near post in the early minutes and Abby Wambach’s left-footed rocket that hit underneath the crossbar that kept matters square at nil.

Alex Morgan, who had scored the third goal on a wonderful chip to put France away in the semifinal, replaced the injured Cheney at half. Morgan was thwarted on a deflection off the right goal post that then bounced off Japanese goalkeeper Ayumi Kaihori in the 49th minute.

Twenty minutes later, though, the youngest American and the next (pretty) face of women’s soccer in this nation would not be denied. Running down a long pass from Megan Rapinoe, the platinum-haired midfielder, who was among the top four U.S. players in Germany, Morgan bodied off a Japanese defender and drilled a left-footer inside the far post.

Twelve minutes after Morgan’s rocket and just at ESPN analyst Julie Foudy was extolling the steadiness of the U.S. captain and mother of two Christie Rampone — the link to the 1999ers, who was then single and known as Pearce — turned it over. That started a sequence in which fellow defenders Rachel Buehler and Ali Krieger ultimately failed to clear a ball that Aya Miyami pounced on and pushed past U.S. keeper Hope Solo.

In the extra session, the Americans took the lead in the 104th minute. This was even more dramatic than Derek Jeter going 5-for-5 when he surpassed the 3,000 hit milestone on July 9.  Generation next’s Morgan, sent a cross from the left baseline that found its way to the current standard-bearer Wambach, who headed it home. The 122nd second goal of her career, Wambach’s winner, would immortalize her alongside Hamm, Akers and Lilly as the best players in U.S. soccer history, no disrespect intended to Landon Donovan. The U.S., deemed by many to be too old — five players had more than 100 caps — and lacking in technical prowess, would surely win its third Cup, a testament to its fitness, fight and ability to finish matches. They would join the 1999 squad in futbol lore and fame, and perhaps even breathe life into the struggling distaff domestic circuit, Women’s Professional Soccer, home to 20 of the 21 U.S. women’s national team members.

Even as Foudy again flubbed her extra time math — play-by-play caller Ian Darke, who started the pair’s miscalculations during their extra-session call of the Brazil match, was correctly on the clock for this one — a U.S. victory was at hand. But in the 117th minute, just three to five minutes (stoppage)  short of a glorious, confetti-filled shower, things went off the page.

Japan’s Homare Sawa, playing in her fifth WWC, torched Solo, who moments before had injured her knee on a threatening cross, with a backward leaning deflection past the near post off a corner. Ironically, a set piece — a putative American advantage going in — became their undoing, as Sawa earned Golden Ball MVP honors and the Golden Boot as the tournament’s top scorer.

Still, the U.S. had two last gasps. Midfielder Heath O’Reilly made a right-side cross that Wambach steered over the top. Then, Morgan, off a beautiful pass from midfielder Carli Lloyd, drew a red card off a tackle just outside the box in the last minute of stoppage time. But Lloyd’s free kick past the Japanese wall veered wide left. Wambach did what she could to hold her position and occupy a defender. That opened the door for defender Tobin Heath near the back post.

Like Lloyd’s inaccuracies from distance and then during PKs, Heath, who replaced Rapinoe in the second extra session, came up empty - her tentative attempt was blocked, much as her saved penalty kick lacked verve. But they were not alone in the PK deficiencies: midfielder Shannon Boxx set the tone with an effete try that goaltender Ayumi Kaihori knocked down with her right foot as she dived to her left. Only Wambach scored from the spot, rendering Solo’s stop on Japan’s second shot inadequate.

Thus the 2011 team, which after losing to Mexico in CONCACAF qualifying had to beat Costa Rica and then Italy in a head-to-head pair, merely to qualify for Germany, won’t return to the States as conquering heroes. This team had  overcome defeats at the cleats of Sweden and England during friendlies heading to Deutschland and another to the former in the finale of Group C, the first U.S. loss in the group stage.

They provided thrills and Nielsen winners with their come-from-behind PK win over Brazil, keyed by Wambach’s header in the 122nd minute, in the quarters, and against France, who outplayed them for much of the semifinal match. Heading into the final, destiny was squarely on their side, especially against a foe that had never defeated them.

But when Saki Kumagai put it past Solo on the fourth PK try, there were no more American rewrites from Tinseltown. The last scene belonged to Japan, which was 0-22-3 versus the U.S., including a pair of 2-0 losses in warm-ups, leading up to Germany.

In the championship match, The Nadeshiko — which also had never  beaten the host and two-time defending WWC champion Germans, and Sweden until their confrontations in the quarters and semis — authored an even more impressive Hollywood ending, one that hopefully provides some measure of solace to a grieving nation.

ESPNW, the worldwide leader’s distaff digital content play, held a coming out/viewing party around the U.S team’s 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup opener against North Korea on Tuesday in Times Square.

Both sides were looking to gain a little buzz at the Crossroads of the World.

Positioning itself outside of corporate cousin ABC’s Good Morning America studios, ESPNW laid down a faux green carpet/soccer field that housed bleachers so fans could watch the video screen perched above the zipper circumscribing the building. There were juggling and soccer performances by Freestyle Soccer CA Group, a foosball table and a gun to gauge the speed of shooters’ shots.

Sports medicine physician Dr. Jordan Metzl put local youth soccer teams through exercise paces aimed at preventing ACL injuries. Too bad, WNBA star Candace Parker didn’t take the class — she sustained the injury on Sunday at the Prudential Center in the LA Sparks game against the New York Liberty.

The pedestrian area was anchored by kiosks sporting the slogan “Because You Love to Play.” They served as U.S. women’s national team posters of sorts, presenting images of striker Abby Wambach, midfielders Carli Lloyd and Shannon Boxx, and goaltender Hope Solo. The names of ESPNW founding sponsors: Nike, Gillette’s Venus line of shavers, Secret anti-perspirent and Gatorade’s G-Series also adorned these displays.

T-shirts and other promotional items sought to raise ESPNW’s profile with the motto, “One letter says a lot.” A tape showcased images of WNBAers, softballers, skater Michelle Kwan, WTA star Kim Clijsters and distaff track and field athletes. But since ESPNW is not only about women’s sports, but female viewpoints about the games guys play, Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton and world No. 1 tennis player Rafa Nadal, among others, also landed in the loop.

Inside, ESPNW personnel, including vice president Laura Gentile, EVP of multimedia sales Eric Johnson and site editor-in- chief Tina Johnson, entertained members of media, and varied guests, who noshed on a diverse menu, highlighted by kielbasa over sauerkraut and St. Pauli Girl. HD monitors dotted the room.

On screen, a too-long promo from Nike showed some of the U.S. team’s training methods and locker room interviews. When the clip interfered with the start of the match, a veteran journalist (not me) groused and the feed from Germany kicked off 20 seconds after kickoff.

As the U.S. struggled to gain its footing, Johnson, the founding editor of Women’s Health and an executive editor at Teen People, talked about ESPNW appealing to the 18-to-34 crowd and how access to athletes was critical to reaching that set.

To that end, the site is featuring blogs from a number of Women’s World Cuppers: New Zealand’s Ali Riley, Canadian captain Christine Sinclair, Sweden’s Caroline Seger and U.S. defender Heather Mitts and midfielder Megan Rapinoe. Female futbol’s former face Mia Hamm is also contributing to ESPNW’s WWC coverage.

Since relaunching on April 26, ESPNW is presenting more videos and has expanding its base of writers: 15 freelancers are currently on the squad. Johnson also talked up more ties to collegiate athletics through collaborations with broadband service ESPN3.com and ESPNU. The schools want the publicity, she noted.

For her part, Johnson wants ESPNW to inspire young athletes, much in the same way they can look up to the women’s national team.

After a skittish first 45 in which Solo had to make five saves, including a diving stop at the right post and brushing aside a flick, the” U.S. turned up the turbos” in the second half and the “Koreans didn’t have much of an answer,” commented Ian Darke, ESPN’s lead soccer voice, who called the game with 91er and former women’s national team captain Julie Foudy.

A last-minute starter for Rapinoe, Lauren Cheney, the best player on the pitch in Dresden, headed a Wambach cross into the back of the net and everybody inside breathed a sigh of relief in the 54th minute.

Outside, the bleacher creatures, several draped in Old Glory, craned their neck skyward at the action, hooting and hollering at the teammates’ aerial precision. Their fervor was further fueled 21 minutes later when Ali Krieger’s long shot skidded across the crossbar and fell to Lloyd, who dropped it to Rachel Buehler. The defender grounded it inside the left post, securing the three points for Team USA. The loyalists stayed to the end, savoring the victory on the aluminum bivouac.

Earlier, one attendee of the Alicia Keys’ GMA concert overstayed his welcome. Climbing atop a light post, where he was apparently pushing his CD, ESPNW’s soccer set-up was sidetracked for a spell. To hear several who witnessed the intrusion tell, New York’s Finest danced around the interloper, who evidently wasn’t removed from his perch because he didn’t evince aggressive behavior.

No red card for self-promotion, I suppose.

The NFL’s collective bargaining agreement with its players lives until at least next Friday.

After calling a 24-hour time-out on Thursday, the groups then decided to keep negotiating until March 11. After taking the weekend off, they’ll return to mediation talks Monday.

Many believe the push to extend the CBA deadline emanated from a March 1 ruling by U.S. District Judge David Doty. He overruled a special master’s previous call that the NFL had negotiated in good faith during its most recent round of contract renewals with its TV carriers. The NFL Players Association filed suit because it felt the NFL had not tried to get as much money as possible for the extensions, something deleterious to the fiscal fortunes of its membership. Instead, the league, according to the suit, opted for less coin in order to ensure that it would have access to $4 billion in rights fees as de facto lockout insurance.

Doty sided with the players, but he has yet to rule on damages and, more importantly, whether to put those rights fees into in escrow, which could officially close that portion of the league’s war chest. Presumably that hammer could drop later, but Doty’s ruling in the eyes of many is what kept the NFL at the negotiating table, a notion commissioner Roger Goodell and the league’s lead counsel Jerry Pash dismissed on Friday.

Whatever the reason(s) — and whenever Doty might set a court date to talk about placing the funds in escrow — the parties now have until March 11 at 5 p.m. to chew on new ways to save their $9 billion-plus, soon-to-become-at least-a-$10-billion, industry. Hurdles remain about rookie wage scale, an 18-game schedule, added health/retirement benefits and the ultimate splitting — the owners want to take the first $2 billion, instead of $1 billion before the players can get their slice — of that large revenue pie. In the meantime, Doty’s ruling provides some interesting vistas into the league’s rights negotiations and the power wielded by the king of professional sports.

According to Doty, the NFL, which began simultaneous negotiations with Sunday afternoon carriers Fox and CBS in April 2009, did not seek increased rights for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons. Under their contracts that were to expire in 2011, the NFL would have to repay CBS and Fox that year in the event of work stoppage.

Instead, the take and give (and you’ll like it seemed to be the tone of the league’s work-stoppage negotiations, opposition to which would be “a deal-breaker”) afforded highlights and streaming rights, plus advertising flexibility to the Sunday afternoon carriers at no additional rights costs. However, they ceded “look-in” capabilities to the league that set up its “Red Zone” scoring channel and similar rights for its wireless provider, Verizon.

Approved in May 2009, the revised contracts, which were extended through the 2012 and 2013 seasons at slightly increased rights fees, “eliminates the requirement that the NFL repay rights fees attributable to the first three lost games in the affected season; allows the NFL to request less than the full rights fee; and allows the NFL to repay the funds, plus money-market interest, over the term of the contract.”

For its part, NBC, like Fox, expressed reluctance to pay what the league wanted for an extended contract beyond its deal through 2011. For agreeing to similar payment terms in the event of a 2011 work stoppage, NBC received an extra regular-season game from 2010-13 and is paying increased rights for the last two years of the revised pact. The league gained look-in capabilities and the capacity to assign streaming rights to wireless partner for NBC’s Sunday Night Football.

As is the case with DirecTV and ESPN, the NFL will extend the broadcast carriers’ contracts for a year if the 2011 season is punted on its entirety.

Things were evidently somewhat different for rookie wireless sponsor Verizon and more complicated where DirecTV and ESPN stood.

In Doty’s summation, “the NFL negotiated access to over $4 billion in rights fees in 2011 if it locks out the players. Of that sum, it has no obligations to repay $421 million.” Those non-refundable monies would come from DirecTV and Verizon Wireless.

According to Doty’s document, the top DBS provider’s contract with the NFL for the out-of-market Sunday Ticket package, a major subscription driver for the satellite leader, was set to conclude with the 2010 campaign. It didn’t contain any work-stoppage provision, meaning the league couldn’t collect any rights fee. DirecTV, which entered into negotiations in July 2008, said it would have considered paying more in 2009 and 2010 “to have [the work-stoppage provision] go away.” But the league was having none of that.

In the deal for the 2011-14 seasons announced in March 2009, DirecTV gained the right to distribute Sunday Ticket over broadband; secured packaging flexibility; “maintained the exclusive right to carry out-of-market games”; and kept carriage for NFL Network until the end of the 2014 season. The NFL, meanwhile, gained the look-in rights it needed to open its Red Zone playbook to cable operators and other distributors, via an almost mirror of the scoring/highlights service that DirecTV has been presenting as part of Sunday Ticket for years.

The gridiron giant also secured significant rights fee increases from DirecTV for the four seasons and the requirement that the DBS leader “will pay a substantial fee if the 2011 season is not canceled and up to 9% more, at the NFL’s discretion,” if it is. As such, the NFL would get a lot more rights more money from DirecTV in 2011 if the players are locked out, than if they take the field. Of that total if the season is destroyed, “42% of that fee is non-refundable and the remainder would be credited to the following season.”

At first glance at that math, it looks like DirecTV could foot almost that entire non-refundable bill, given the $4 billion value of its Sunday Ticket contract from 2011-14 seasons. However, the contract likely escalates from deal that ended in 2010, which averaged some $700 million annually. There are also other terms and credits that would reduce DirecTV’s rights exposure, including a heavily discounted deal for an additional season if the lockout claims the 2011 campaign.

While the broadcasters and ESPN contracts don’t include non-refundable payments provisions, Doty’s ruling also mentioned that Verizon Wireless would be on the hook. Supplanting Sprint as the official wireless provider of the league through a $720 million contract in February 2010, Verizon Wireless gained access to the Red Zone, the streaming of Sunday and Thursday night games and other highlight rights. But under the contract, Verizon Wireless, too, is obligated to pay a non-refundable rights fee,” even if pigskins with Goodell’s signature on them don’t fly in 2011.

Welcome to the club, rook. Can you hear me now?: Where’s the check? A Verizon Wireless spokeswoman declined to comment on the payments.

As for ESPN, the worldwide leader already had an NFL contract through 2013. That agreement contained a work-stoppage provision similar to those of the broadcast networks, except that “the NFL could be required to pay damages incurred by ESPN due to lost subscription fees.” The parties worked on a new deal in the fall of 2009, with the new work stoppage language providing that ESPN, at the league’s discretion, would pay up to the full rights fee; “a credit for the first three games of the season would be applied the same year; the NFL may request less than the full rights fee;” and that the league would “repay the funds, with LIBOR interest, plus 100 basis points, over the term of the contract.”

Through the negotiations, ESPN didn’t add term, but picked up various assets: to use NFL footage in linear distribution of regular programming across digital platforms, excluding the right to distribute Monday Night Football wirelessly; the right to stream live MNF highlights on its website; the right to show game highlights online; more international rights; and broad wireless rights. The league, in turn, was allowed to show in-progress MNF highlights on NFL.com and wireless devices.

ESPN, according to Doty’s document, agreed to expend rights from July 2010 through July 2014 and requested that the fee not be payable in the event of a work stoppage. The NFL shut down that request, saying the work-stoppage provisions and the digital deal were “linked.”According to the ruling, the NFL, to secure ESPN’s agreement to the work stoppage provision, granted the programmer the right “to a Monday Night Football ‘simulcast’ via the wireless partner.”

Was the latter clause what enabled ESPN to offer its top property as part of its authenticated, online simulcast of the network? ESPN officials wouldn’t say.

However, Time Warner Cable began proffering an authenticated online simulcast of the network, including MNF, kicking off with New York Giants-Dallas Cowboys game on Oct. 25. That came as part of far-reaching carriage deal it struck with Time Warner Cable last September. Since then, Bright House Networks (TWC handles programming negotiations for the operator) and Verizon FiOS, have launched similarly authenticated, online ESPN services. MNF, in the event the league is playing next fall, would be available to those distributors’ subscribers — and to any other affiliates it could reach a similar pact with it — as well.

Lest you’ve forgotten — and rest assured Goodell and NFL Players Association executive director De Smith and their respective charges haven’t — the league is reported to be sitting on a new ESPN deal, under which rights would soar to almost $1.9 billion annually from the current contract average of $1.1 billion per season.

If all other revenues sources held equal, the lucrative, long-term ESPN deal would push the NFL’s revenue total to the $10 billion plateau. That’s without as much as another nickel emanating from any other source, network or otherwise. Small chance the NFL, particularly if it can convince the players to engage in the 18-game schedule and with it the possibilities it opens for such other potentially interested parties as Versus, FX and Turner — or a full-season primetime slate for NFL Network — won’t be asking for a lot more.

If it didn’t that wouldn’t be bad faith, just bad negotiating.

Check out Doty’s ruling here.

Carmelo Anthony’s debut as a New York Knick was an opening-night success personally, professionally and for Madison Square Garden Network.

After months of trade talks and various permutations thereof, Knicks owner and Cablevision president and CEO James Dolan finally got his $65 million man on Feb. 22. The next night, as sleep-deprived as the Brooklyn-borne Anthony may have been, his appearance further galvanized the awakening tipped off by the free-agent acquisition and performance of Amar’e Stoudemire this season of what has been an almost decade-long dormancy by one of the NBA’s most important franchises.

Anthony snagged 10 rebounds and poured in 27 points, including two key buckets down the stretch, which enabled the Knicks to hold off the Milwaukee Bucks 114-108, driving the MSG faithful and Knicks fans everywhere into a frenzy.

The exuberance also translated onto small screens throughout Big Apple environs, the likes of which hadn’t been seen for 16 years for a Knicks regular-season game. MSGN dunked a 6.7 household rating and 507,285 households in the New York DMA, according to Nielsen data, its highest-rating since March 28, 1995. That’s when Michael Jordan, five games into his first comeback following his Double A baseball dabble, famously dropped what No. 1 Knicks fan Spike Lee dubbed “a double nickel” at MSG. In mathematical parlance, “His Airness” scored 55 against the orange and blue, netting a 6.78 household rating, according to MSGN officials.

Now, the question is what can The ‘Melo and Mar’e Show do for a Nielsen encore? With the big ratings boost from ‘Melo’s arrival on Wednesday night, MSGN lifted its season average to a 1.62 rating in the New York DMA through 52 telecasts, up 60% from a 1.01 average last year. Among guys 18 to 34, the network dunked an 8.42 rating with Knicks-Bucks, raising its demo average to a 2.3, up 147% from its 0.93 mark during the 2009-10 NBA season.

Not sure how big Knicks and the LeBron-less Cavs will play on Friday night, but New York on Sunday night will take its new talent, including point guard Chauncey Billups, to South Beach, where James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh and the rest of the Miami Heat await. MSGN and ESPN’s coverage of Anthony and Amar’e figures to take a bite out of ABC’s Big Apple Oscar watching accordingly.