I got to talk to Dean Lombardi…for about 45 seconds. He called, and gave this response to a question about how it got to this point with Patrick O’Sullivan, then had to tend to some issue that was clearly distracting him. I’ve been awaiting a call back for about two hours, so I figured I should just put this out there now.

“It’s based on experience in these things. I just think it’s important we work through this now. This isn’t totally unusual in the business. The goal is to get him on a long-term contract. I just learned from experience. You still have to prepare your team. Your team has to stay prepared and focused. Sure we need him and we want him, but the team has to start preparing even if he’s not here. I think it’s better for everyone’s focus, based on my experience, that that’s the way we deal with it.”

Obviously there will be substantial expansion on this tomorrow at training camp, and if I get any further updates tonight I will certainly pass them along.