Ready to play, but nowhere to go; welcome to the life of

former Kent State football stars Cobrani Mixon and Brian Lainhart.

As the National Football League and the NFL players union

enter the fourth month of heated negotiations and battles in federal courts

over each side’s fair share of the multi-billion dollar industry, it is still

unknown if a new collective bargaining agreement will be reached in time for

the 2011 season.

The players union decertified three moths ago, and the

owners in turn locked out the players. Since then, neither side has budged.

“There’s so much money out there it’s hard to believe they

can’t come to an agreement,” said linebacker Cobrani Mixon, who earned his

second straight first-team all MAC honor as a senior last fall for the Flashes.

“Hopefully it ends soon. I need a job, I’m unemployed right now.”

Until a new collective bargaining agreement is put in place,

players cannot sign contracts, use team facilities, talk with coaches, or learn

playbooks.

Although Mixon and Kent State safety Brian Lainhart didn’t

hear their names called as they hoped they would on draft weekend, they both

said several teams called them to express interest (only during the NFL draft

are NFL teams allowed to be in contact during the lockout with potential

draftees).

Lainhart and Mixon, best friends from their days together at

Cincinnati Colerain High School, were the two most highly scouted players for

Kent State during the spring draft.

The lockout makes it particularly difficult for undrafted rookie

free agents — who would otherwise use the time after April’s NFL draft to try out

for a team contract — to catch on with the league and find a place with a team.

“For the guys who got drafted, they know where they are

going,” Lainhart said, “but us free agents, we’re kind of in limbo right now,

so that makes things hard.”

In the fall, Lainhart earned second-team all-conference and

finished his Kent State career with 17 interceptions and 344 tackles.

“You have to have to get acclimated with the coaches and

playbook,” Lainhart said.

Because of the lockout, Mixon said he has missed “getting

our playbook, getting in there for rookie camp, meeting the guys and all the

coaches. I’m already behind, we’re all going to be thrown into the fire now.”

The waiting game

With no contact, there can be no contract. The two

NFL-hopefuls have had to find other ways to stay fit, make money and keep busy.

Mixon moved back to Cincinnati, where he trains five days

per week: running and upper-body workouts on Mondays and Thursdays, running and

lower-body workouts on Tuesdays and Fridays and boxing on Wednesdays.

Lainhart stayed in Kent to workout with Doug Davis, Kent

State football’s new strength and conditioning coach. He’s also used the time

to begin mixed martial arts training, which he does two times a week with Brian

Rogers, an MMA fighter at Strong Style gym in Independence.

“Their cardio is a totally different animal than what ours

is, so I can challenge myself with that,” Lainhart said.

Lainhart admitted waiting for the lockout to end gets

boring. “Play golf, workout for two and a half hours, then you just watch paint

dry,” he joked.

Lainhart started umpiring youth baseball games in Kent and

Hudson for the summer, calling strikes and balls behind the plate instead of

learning X’s and O’s on an NFL field.

Mixon, meanwhile, works side jobs to earn money during his

wait in Cincinnati.

“Cutting my family’s grass, cutting other grass, stuff like

that. It’s kind of hard to get a job because you’re going to have to give it up

soon, hopefully,”

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, union head DeMaurice Smith,

team owners and negotiators have kept quiet about the legal proceedings at the recent

request of a federal judge.

The owners will meet in Chicago starting Tuesday in order to

receive updates on the progress of negotiations.  But, even the people closest to the lockout are unsure if

and when a new collective bargaining agreement will be reached.

Until then, Mixon and Lainhart will continue to prepare on

their own, waiting anxiously to show they belong in the league.

Contact Summer Kent Stater reporter Doug Brown at [email protected].