Earlier this week, a judge from Minnesota ordered the NFL lockout be lifted. The NFL's request for a stay from the judge to temporarily halt the ruling was denied, and now the NFL is waiting to hear back on a request for a stay from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
There has been a whole lot of confusion over what all of this means, especially with the NFL and the players. The players' feeling was that the lockout was over and the 2011 league year had started. The NFL, on the other hand, felt that until a final ruling on their request for a stay was made, things hadn't changed at all.
It's becoming clearer and clearer that things are in fact changing, so the NFL issued a list of rules for teams to follow going forward. The rules allow players to use team facilities, receive playbooks, meet with coaches and take part in OTAs. As a result, teams are already getting schedules ready for next week. Case in point:
The Lions players are being told to report on Monday and OTA's start Wednesday
The Lions have had to spend the offseason focusing solely on the 2011 NFL Draft, so I'm sure the coaches are ready to actually do some coaching. Based on the above report, it looks like that coaching will begin next week.