The lockout of members of the trade organization that was once the NFLPA/Players Inc. by the National Football League has turned a lucky 100 Days Old today. Let's celebrate and sing a song in recognition of this fortuitous anniversary! For a hundred days, we've been here to listen to information about the NFL negotiated its latest TV deals in bad faith and how certain players feel the NFL is "Modern Slavery." We've endured player-organized workouts, the debate as to whether the injury risk without insurance from the league under contract was worth it followed by the debate as to whether or not the practices helped players at all, except from a public relations standpoint.
Which led to still more discussion as to whether or not OTAs actually help players.
Word of 'secret meetings' (being advantageously leaked for PR reasons) came out! And in the midst of those talk, rumors just so happened to come out about the plans that the NFL has for a shortened season. Who knows if the NFL leaked it to add pressure or if the Players leaked it to get PR points. Secret meetings give way to not so secret meetings.
Not so secret meetings give way to extensions of Board of Governors meetings. No one wants to see the Hall of Fame game cancelled. Things are improving. They take steps back. They improve more. They're not going to leave the table without a deal. Everyone wants a deal....
No kidding.
What we've learned in the last one-hundred days is this; Football is America's pastime and with the amount of money on the line, there wasn't a way that a deal wasn't going to be made. No games are likely to be missed, not even pre-season games (unfortunately). The NBA and NHL both gained a little extra exposure for their playoffs because Joe Casual Fan in New Hampshire and Jill Casual Fan in Houston didn't have, when it comes down to it, irrelevant Patriots, Cowboys and Texans news to contend with in their pleasure of following the Mavericks and Bruins to their respective titles.
But at the end of the day, when the deal is made, people will either say "thank God" or just "finally" and it will all go back to normal. It may come off that I hate the NFL. I don't. Sure, sometimes I may hate that the Bills don't get traction in the league, and I might prefer hockey, but it doesn't remove the entertainment value of our national sport.
What I hate is the farce that this off season has been. I hate the clever page that popped up if you clicked the link to the player's website above. I hate multi-millionaires comparing themselves to slaves. I hate the owners for making the 'bad deal' in '06 that they opted out of in '08. I hate that Ralph Wilson feels superior about voting against that deal and that he will likely vote against this one too. I hate that we're all going to come crawling back to our couches and HDTVs and our Fantasy Football Leagues like an abused spouse because 'it wasn't so bad' and 'at least we didn't lose any games, let alone a full season and Stanley Cup final.'
I hate that I wrote this blog. And I hate that I'll forget all this when the season starts.
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