Waiting for the lockout to end (astropix.com)
The NFL lockout reached a milestone of sorts this week, when it passed the 100-day mark. So the lockout has now been about as long as a 17-week NFL regular season. Luckily, we haven't missed any games… yet.
But the fun of the NFL offseason has already been lost. The time when the NFL sells its fans hope for next season has been replaced with breathless updates on labor negotiations. Fun times! Fans missed out on the time when your NFL franchise reshuffles its cards and nearly finalizes the roster they will take into battle the next season. This is also the time when fans usually get to be armchair GMs.
I'm as big a football fan as there is, and I can't even tell you the names of the Eagles' top draft picks. They took the Canadian fireman/hockey player, who is kind of old and will likely start on the O-line, and um, er, I forget after that. That's what a lockout does to fan interest.
People have said they'd be fine without football, but what would your Sundays be like this fall without the NFL? Hmmm. No gambling. No fantasy football. Weekly Honey-Do lists to complete. No built-in excuse to have a few (or ten) beverages on a Sunday. No, thanks. Face it, the NFL is your excuse to get away with doing nothing on Sundays and enjoying it. Without it, you have nowhere else to go.
There have been reports that they are getting closer to a "framework" for a deal. There is much more optimism, but the rumored sticking point is a handful of hard-line owners who say they are willing to cancel the entire season if need be, in order to get the proper amount of concessions from the players. These owners are believed to be some or all of Jerry Jones (pictured below), Ralph Wilson, Dan Snyder, Jerry Richardson, Robert Kraft, Mike Brown, and our own Jeffrey Lurie.
So, anyway, if you're like most football fans, you're probably a still little concerned at this point. Training camp is fast approaching and in order to have a semblance of a free agency period, a deal would need to get done by the first or second week of July.
For the first time in the decade since the Eagles became Super Bowl contenders (with the exception of 2004), we had an offseason where Eagles fans weren't agonizing over every move the team didn't make. Thanks to the labor impasse, we've only heard crickets since the Eagles tapped their offensive line coach to run the defense. You may have forgotten about that. Now get outraged all over again!
Depending on how the negotiations proceed, we may have to pack an entire offseason of complaints into just a few weeks of free agency. So hopefully we'll all be well-rested and ready for a July bitch session.
10 Responses
I hope the NBA follows suit. Only difference is, I won’t miss it.
Great article…but another example of why the fans need to take the power back. I have every intention of ignoring this season, and hopefully many more (and by ignore, I mean no games, no sportscenter, no money of mine spent on anything nfl related…obviously I’m still reading the articles, what the hell else can I do when I’m unemployed). The game use to be played for true competition, an avenue of recreation for Americans to follow on the weekends, not for MONEY. And if anybody can sit here and argue that todays NFL – and every other major sport, including college football – is about anything other than money, go ahead. Occassionally you get glimpses of what the games use to be about, but now through the onslaught of advertising and merchandising, outrageous ticket prices and seat licensing (what a scam that is), the game is about money.
The NFL’s new theme song should be CREAM by Wu-tang, cash rules everything around me, CREAM, get your money, dollar dollar bills y’all!
Frankly speaking, I could care less. I don’t start thinking about football until the 53-man roster is finalized in late August. I’m not one of those hapless, pathetic losers for whom the NFL supercedes everything in life, if the lockout is settled soon, fine, if not, oh well, no sweat off my nose. As of right now, I’m all about the Phillies, baby!
My only hope is the NBA locks out next season as well. Then it’s only Baseball and Hockey. How awesome will that be?
Who cares, the NHL schedule is out.
Nothing to do on a Sunday? Hell, I can think of a million things to do without football. Checking the scores just filled a tenth of a second from the rest of the life I have. Anyways, as someone on here already said, the Phils will be wrapping things up at the tailend of October and the Flyers will be in full steam at that point. I could live without football for a year.
We always have another year of disappointing Flyer hockey to watch!
The Sixers and Phillies will be the only teams worth watching this year.
college football will give me my fill. NFL has sucked the past few years.
why hope the NBA has a lockout so others who *do* enjoy it won’t get to watch it?
@Defenstrate Wheels – College football? Ugh. Fun to watch at times, but with the BCS/lack of a playoff, it’s like getting great head that doesn’t reach a happy ending.
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