NFL Lockout Is Over!! Oh-No Flag On The Play....

Are you ready for some football??? I know the answer to that question. Everyone is about "done" with the current NFL lockout. The labor dispute was seemingly coming to an end this past Thursday when 31 of the 32 NFL owners agreed on a deal that the media reported would be approved by the players. It didn't happen...yet. I think most of us is confident from what we are hearing that an agreement really is around the corner and the NFL season more than likely will start on time. But the bottom line is most strike/lockout related situations, no matter what the industry, are not resolved until the 11th hour. Also when your talking about BILLIONS of dollars being divided, it is going to take time to work everything out. Even though there may be some posturing going on by the players at this time, you can't blame them for wanting to make sure they understand this complex deal that they will commit to for ten years. Let's face it, this is not like a month to month lease agreement that they will try to take to Judge Greg Mathis for a small claims settlement if an issue arises. Ten years is a long commitment; most of the players in the league today will not see the life of this agreement and scores more will enter and exit the league within that time period. Nothing is more important than getting it right, right now.

The media is doing a great job keeping us up to date on all the breaking labor dispute news. But hearing every detail, in detail, is part of what is making this issue a little anxious for fans. In no way am I knocking sports journalists for doing their job. The reality is, that in an attempt to resolve a dispute, there are going to be peaks and valleys. In a moment it will look like a touchdown is going to be scored, and just as fast, there will be a fumble out of that endzone for a touchback. So some of the developments of the past couple of days should not be a surprise. In a few more days (hopefully) we will all wipe our brows and scream "finally!!" because the dispute will be over. That's when sports journalist can get back to reporting on what they would rather be informing us about: actual football matters on the field. And then we can put most of the legal and labor minutiae behind us.