Magic number for NFL labor deal is 24

To get an NFL labor deal done, you need to be able to count to 24.

That’s the number of owner votes representing a three-quarters majority, the requirement to move beyond the current lockout and avoid the first NFL game cancellations since the 1987 season.

By all indications, the NFL and players are inching closer to a new collective bargaining agreement, and any opposition among the 32 owners might not have the nine votes necessary to derail a deal.

“There’s an urgency for everybody to get this done,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday at the end of a one-day owners meeting focused on updating clubs on the progress of ongoing talks with the NFL Players Assn., now decertified as a union.

Owners had been asked to prepare to spend the night in Chicago in case the meetings ran over, but the session had ended by mid-afternoon.

“It was a good day in the sense that we had a full discussion on the issues,” Goodell said. “And I think our ownership continues to be determined to reach an agreement, make sure we play the full season.”

While warning about overly optimistic predictions of a quick resolution — “We’ve got a lot of work to do” — Goodell called it “a tremendous positive” that principals from both sides are talking. Those discussions are expected to resume Wednesday and continue Thursday.

Despite all sorts of reports of what a new agreement might contain, the NFL has steered clear of offering any specific details about proposed ways to generate new revenue or share it.

Keeping Faith

Even during a lockout, the show must go on. That was the sentiment at a studio in Hollywood last week, as NBC shot its “Sunday Night Football” intro sung by Faith Hill.

In the latest version, she rides up on a motorcycle and belts out her song — “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night” — against the green-screen backdrop of a major (but unidentifiable) city. Last season, she stepped out of a classic Mustang and sang on a country road.

Anticipating there might be a lockout at this point, NBC shot extra footage of players in the studio last summer and plans to weave that into this season’s intro, called an “open.” Among those players are Peyton and Eli Manning, Adrian Peterson, Dwight Freeney, Ray Lewis and DeSean Jackson.

“If we would have had an opportunity this year, we probably would have asked for a Mike Vick, a Mark Sanchez, a Darrelle Revis or somebody like that, deserving to be in the open,” producer Fred Gaudelli said. “But with the lockout . . . we just didn’t want to be in the predicament of, for instance, we had a guy who would do it but we couldn’t get his uniform and the team couldn’t send it to us.”

For her part, Hill said she’s convinced the labor crisis will be resolved in time for the scheduled Sept. 8 season opener, New Orleans at Green Bay, when NBC’s Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth will call the Thursday night game.

“I just have it in my head that there’s absolutely no way that we’re not going to have football,” she said. “I just can’t imagine it.”

Talkin’ football

Kurt Warner, a two-time NFL most valuable player, has been added as a speaker for the ninth annual NFL 101 All-Access on July 18 at the Coliseum.

The event, hosted by the L.A. Sports & Entertainment Commission, is a cocktail reception, silent auction and buffet dinner held on the field and giving attendees a chance to, among other things, catch passes from NFL players, kick field goals, or get an equipment demonstration from Gordon Batty, longtime equipment manager for the Green Bay Packers.

The panel of speakers includes Cincinnati Coach Marvin Lewis; Jeff Fisher, former coach of Tennessee; owners Michael Bidwill of Arizona and Jed York of San Francisco; and Amy Trask, Oakland’s chief executive.

Tickets are $500 each. Contact Aubrey Walton at 213-236-2347 or awalton@lasec.us, or check https://www.lasec.net for more information.

sam.farmer@latimes.com