Well, NFL fans, there seems to be some light at the end of this ridiculously long tunnel known as the NFL Lockout. The NFL is targeting the date of July 21st as a day that an agreement will finally be reached between the owners and the players association. As of right now lawyers are working feverishly to tie up all of the loose ends for the new collective bargaining agreement so when the owners and players step into the room it will be to sign some paperwork and end the lockout.
The only problem with this date is it will be 6 days after the self imposed deadline for the agreement to be in place in order to still have the preseason start at its scheduled date. The St. Louis Rams and Chicago Bears are set to square off in the annual Hall of Fame game on August 7th but it will very likely be cancelled if the lockout goes much longer. The two sides still have a lot of work to do before an agreement is reached and the big piece that is still left unresolved is the rookie wage scale.
Hopefully an agreement can be made as soon as possible but, if it is not and preseason games start being cancelled, the NFL will start losing as much as $250 million of revenue per preseason game. Sounds to me like enough motivation to get a deal done. Once a deal has been made look for free agency to open up and become an absolute frenzy of activity. Hang in there, fans, as it appears we only have one more week of watching NFL Follies and not real NFL activity so don’t cancel your fantasy football leagues just yet.
