Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Oh yes, there will be football

It's official Followers, there will be a 2011 NFL season after all. Consistent perusers of This Space may recall this post regarding the NFL Lockout and what it could mean for this year's season. I'm not going to go into all the details about who gets what, because quite frankly trying to make sense of all the jewelry rattling makes me need to go lie down in a cool place. Let's just say the Players and Owners met each other halfway and got a deal worked out. The details are just that - details. The bottom line is what the bottom line has always been - everybody gets paid.

I was still hoping that there wouldn't be a season this year - for a couple reasons:
1) Because the Cincinnati Bengals need more time to get their sh... act together. Do everyone in the southern half of Ohio a favor and upgrade your "Personnel Department" to the level of every other 21st-century professional football team. Hire a General Manager, hire real scouts, stop signing felons to the roster and stop letting the owner stick his nose into things he knows nothing about - namely, football. Don't get me wrong, Mike Brown is an excellent business man - what other company do you know that has produced such a terrible product for 20 years and continues to be in business? Seriously, show of hands. Hands down, Billy Bob.

And B) I was hoping the owners would get to take one in the shorts for once. Let them feel a few pangs of reality when they aren't making six figures each paycheck. "I'm sorry Jerry Jones, but your credit card has been declined due to insufficient funds." See what happens to the spoiled rotten brats then...

Another thing I'm worried about actually having a "season" this year... the quality of play. I have a sneaky suspicion that there are going to be a lot more injuries this year because players are not going to be in the same physical shape they typically are in. Being a former ball player, I'm well aware of the intense training it requires to be the condition that it takes to play this game for an extended period of time. It's not like golf where you can just go play 18 without pulling your back out when you haven't touched a set of clubs in 9 months. This sport mandates that you be in peak physical condition - not just so you can outperform the other guy, but so you don't get your neck snapped in half coming over the middle when your QB hangs you out to dry.

And of course, more injuries means the backups will be playing more... thus the decrease in the quality of play. Another show of hands - who can name Tom Brady's backup? Aaron Rodger's clipboard holder? When was the last time Payton Manning sat out a few snaps? And that's just the Quarterback position. I won't even talk about the higher-impact positions like Running Back or Cornerback. Not sure how deep your team's Secondary is, but better sign a few more to the practice squad, just in case.

All in all, I'm still a football junkie and will watch as much of it as Alli will let me... but I'm glad this whole "situation" is resolved and we can move on. I'll be honest, I was getting tired of hearing about how one side wasn't getting the millions and millions they wanted and thought they deserved. I think I should get paid more than what I do... but then again some people could just argue that I'm rattling my jewelry as well. I'd use some ten-dollar words to explain why, but I can't afford them.

No comments:

Post a Comment