These idiots.
1) The 8th circuit has not issued a stay.
2) The court has pending before it two motions for a stay. First, is what I'll call the "big" motion. The big motion asks for a stay (which would keep the lock out in place) until the appeal can be heard and decided. This would be roughly until mid-June.
3) The court also has pending before it what I'll call the motion for a "little" stay -- that is, a short stay while it considers whether to enter the big stay.
4) The "big" stay will not be decided until some time next week. The NFL's reply brief is not due until Monday morning. They are not going to rule until they get that brief.
5) The "short" stay could be decided any time. But it hasn't been decided yet. (At least, it had not been decided as of 20 minutes ago.) The latests things on the docket are (a) the player's response to the motion for a big stay, (b) a motion by the players to file an over-length brief (in other words, to exceed the page limit), and (c) an order by the court granting the motion to exceed the page limit.
In short, there has been no ruling on the little stay. It's hard to know what that means. It might mean the 8th Circuit doesn't plan to grant any stay. It might mean they just haven't had a chance to have 3 judges read the papers yet. It might mean that they intend to rule very quickly early next week and don't see a need to enter an interim stay in the meantime. It might mean they wanted to wait for the players' brief, which just got filed about an hour ago.
Interestingly, the order granting the motion to exceed the page limits was not signed by a judge -- it was signed by the clerk with the following on the entry line: "Ordered at the Direction of the Court." While this is pretty standard for procedural or routine orders like an order exceeding the page limit, it would have been interesting to know which judge or judges on the court is hearing the motions in the case.