NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith discussed a new collective bargaining agreement for about 100 minutes on Thursday and then left without saying a word. Goodell returned hours later, after participating in the league's competition committee meeting and reiterated the league's position of finishing a new deal before the CBA expires in March 2011. "It doesn't pay to characterize everything," Goodell said. "They [the players] know our desire to get a deal done and we've got to keep working to do that."