I wish I could tell you there has been a significant break in the NFL’s labor impasse…
Unfortunately, after a full day perched at DuPage Airport in West Chicago, I can only report that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft boarded his private jet just after 2:30 Wednesday afternoon and departed.
The assembled parties
Leaving just after Kraft was the private jet of the Dallas Cowboys – the one with a blue star on each side of the tail and the registration code N1DC – belonging to Blue Star Management Services Corp. based at 1 Cowboys Parkway in Irving, Texas, according to FAA registration.
A Tribune photographer was there to snap plenty of pictures of the Cowboys jet and Kraft as he boarded his jet, which is registered to Airkraft One Trust Corp. Get it? Air Kraft. Airkraft.
I can also report that multiple sources told the Tribune that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell arrived at DuPage Airport late Tuesday afternoon. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was spotted by sources and it’s also believed Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, a key voice in the labor process, was present. Both came into the airport Tuesday, according to the sources.
What’s going on?
The NFL office was unable to provide any details on the apparent meeting. Airport officials were mum. They said their policy is not to discuss the business of their customers – or potential customers. But on a bright and sunny Wednesday the men were not playing 18 holes at the adjoining Prairie Landing Golf Club, the beautiful Robert Trent Jones Jr.-designed course that’s owned and operated by the DuPage Airport Authority.
The big questions
Where the NFL honchos were and what their business was, we can only speculate. Maybe they had a secret meeting with NFLPA executives? Perhaps it’s a late push to get something done before Friday’s court hearing at the 8th Circuit Court? The lockout is grinding toward a third month and Goodell said in a press conference last week that it is damaging the league. Maybe it was a strategy session for what lies ahead, as owners are reportedly confident they will succeed in the appeal that will finally be heard this week in St. Louis?
NFL owners gathered just last week for the spring meeting in Indianapolis, and whatever they had on their plates Tuesday and Wednesday couldn’t be done via teleconference or Skype. So they flew to DuPage — of all places — an airport with a larger runway than Midway, and a place that nearly offered them total anonymity. (Sorry, guys.)
Odds and ends
What else did I learn about DuPage in that seven-hour stay? It has a 24-hour FAA-manned tower and a U.S. Customs office on site — so it’s capable of handling international travel, something you’d never know by driving past on North Avenue. The price of jet fuel, listed inside, is $5.16 a gallon. Be glad you’re not paying that to fill your tank.
Dramatic exit
A few passengers came through the main building, to-and-from small planes. But a chance to ask Kraft about the labor situation, the lockout and his visit to the western suburbs was foiled when the black SUV with Indiana plates he was riding in took him directly to the tarmac and the stairwell of his jet.
Four minutes after Kraft boarded, his plane was rolling. Six minutes later, at 2:43, it was wheels-up.
And off he went with the answers to my questions.
— Brad Biggs, @BradBiggs
Join Facebook: Trib Nation” href=”http://www.facebook.com/tribnation” target=”_blank”>Trib Nation on Facebook for more of the how and why of Tribune journalism.
