"Advice for those Philadelphia Eagles fans planning their vacations around the Birds' annual flight to Lehigh University for training camp:

Might want to keep an eye on that Shore rental, just in case.

Lehigh Dean of Athletics Joe Sterrett said today that a philly.com report that indicated a mid-June "drop-dead" deadline for the Eagles to notify Lehigh if camp would go on at the campus as scheduled wasn't entirely accurate.

Still, he said that some lead time would be necessary once the NFL lockout is lifted or a settlement is reached between owners and players.

"Normally it would take three to four weeks to put up the stands and tents that we do for camp, and the Eagles usually start (around July 20), so that's where that mid-June comment came from," Sterrett said. "It's great if we know that far in advance, but we'll take any steps we can to help to accelerate the process. There's no ultimatum from our side. We're planning so we can respond as aggressively as possible."

On the other hand, Sterrett made clear that the Eagles could not postpone

camp at Lehigh much farther into August than usual, because Lehigh needs to get its facilities ready for its students, who start to return the third week of August.

"From the front end, we won't have anything else going on. We can go as long as need be (with certain caveats) until we make a decision," Sterrett said. "But there's not much give at the back end."

So the window for whether or not the Eagles will be arriving at the Goodman Stadium complex in late July hasn't even begun to close, yet, from Lehigh's point of view. But the situation does not look promising for a Lehigh camp.

The absolute earliest that the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in St. Louis, will issue a ruling on the merits of the injunction by the NFL Players Association seems to be late June. Anybody that knows anything about government's workings would look at that date, notice the July 4 holiday coming up, and think that post-holiday may be more likely for a decision.

In any case, virtually no one expects that a ruling will be immediately accepted by the losing side. Even if it is, negotiations for a new labor settlement won't go quickly. And would the Eagles really want to be signing players and bringing in free agents amid a move to Lehigh?"