It's the beginning of July and, normally, teams would begin holding OTAs (organized team activities) to get ready for training camp. But, alas, no OTAs can be held. What's an NFL fan to do?
Supposedly, the owners and players are still holding meetings to try and come to an agreement so that the 2011 season is not lost. Many are still holding out hope that, not only will the season be saved in time, but that the preseason will also be saved!
Uh, yeah ... gotta have that preseason, right? I mean, that's just what us football-starved fans need after anxiously awaiting an end to this silly lockout: The NFL Preseason — Full price admission to meaningless games. I'm surprised the NFL Hype Machine hasn't figured out a way to sell tickets to watch the negotiations.
Of course, I kid. A sense of humor is a necessity when you blog about the NFL and the Browns in particular.
Apparently, yesterday's negotiations made for a difficult day — tenuous and frustrating for those involved. Hmm ... that about sums up how the fans have felt all along, no? We're the ones for whom this has really been difficult. We just wanna watch some football!
According to NFL.com, the owners and players stayed at it for 12½ hours, meeting until 10:30 p.m. in Manhattan, with a few staying behind to complete wrap-up work and lingering until 11:30 p.m. The result, according to those involved, was a healthy amount of progress on the core economic issues that made the talks so difficult during another long session.
Blah, blah, blah ... it's the same old story. We've been hearing this line for months. Progress, smogress ... I'll believe it when I see the gates open up in Berea for training camp.
A big issue right now is timing. To save the preseason, a completed deal must be reached by July 15.
Now, you might say, who cares about the preseason? They're meaningless games, so let's just get on with it ... not so fast. As I said, preseason games, while meaningless, still generate a lot of revenue for the owners.
Saving the preseason would avert a possible loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Such a loss would affect the owners' offer to the players and could poison negotiations to the point where the dispute would head back to the courts.
See, it never ends. So close, yet so far ...
I don't know about you, but I'm starting to lose hope. What do you think? Will there be a 2011 NFL Season? Will there be a preseason? Will we get to go to Berea and watch training camp?
I guess we'll just have to keep waiting.
Go Browns!
Rocco the Blawg Pound Mascot says:
getting old ...
I'm tired of
waiting."
No comments:
Post a Comment