That is what we have heard, but this is what ESPN’s Chris Mortenson reports:

“As prominent NFL man says, please ignore concept being floated that NFL could shut down business if lockout lifted,” Mortensen writes on Twitter.  “Not a chance, he says.”  Mortensen later dismissed Goodell’s failure to take the option off the table by saying without elaboration, “I wouldn’t use it as a barometer of what’s real here.”

While anything may be possible, we may be able to at least rule out that idea.