Lockout threatens 2011 NFL season

Can you imagine a late September Sunday afternoon with no football to watch? It's not because your favorite team has a bye week, but it's because of a labor strike.

The National Football League has a March 3 deadline set to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement between the NFL Players Association and the owners.

If the owners and the NFLPA are not able come to an agreement, it would force the NFL into a lockout.

The last time the NFL has had a labor dispute this large it was in 1987 when the NFL used replacement players for three weeks until the dispute was settled.

When you hear about the dispute you think of two things; the owners are being stingy and the players are being greedy. But, let's examine the effects of the possible lockout, shall we?

The immediate impact will be felt in the cities where the teams are located.

Each city is estimated to lose nearly $160 million and more than 115,000 jobs would be affected.

Those jobs include everyone from the concession stand worker to the beat writer for the team. Coaches and scouts for the teams would possibly be forced into taking pay cuts up to 50 percent or have their contracts suspended or terminated within 20 days' notice of a lockout.

The 2011 draft class will also be affected by the pending lockout. Imagine being the first overall pick in the draft and having no training camp, no organized team activities and most importantly, no money.

Because of the talks of a labor strike, it made the decision to return to school easier for the juniors, but has the seniors who are entering the draft walking on eggshells, to say the least.

With television ratings for the NFL being the highest they have been in 20 years -- according to The Washington Post -- the lockout would do more than hurt the league. It would strip it of its title.

The NFL is the richest league on the planet with a net worth of $7.6 billion in 2008.

NFL generates most of its revenue through lucrative media deals, not having a season will actually cause them to lose more money than they would save.

The careers of the future NFL stars are also being affected. The juniors who had to return to college risk the possibility of injury playing another 13 to 14 game schedule, and killing any chances of a NFL career.

I guess without football for six months, we all need to find hobbies to kill time until 2012.