Do you remember Y2K? The angst that the nation felt in preparation for this life altering change of millennium was palpable. There were people going out and purchasing canned foods in order to be sustained in the event that a catastrophy somehow destroyed the infrastructure necessary to bring fresh food to supermarkets everywhere. Computers were thought to be completely confused as the calendar went from 99 to 00. Religious groups thought that the new millennium signaled the end of the world.
As January 1st arrived, nothing happened.
The NFL Lockout will, unfortunately, be quite a bit different. As we approach the dreaded date of March 4th, the NFL will be vastly different. Not only will everyone be a day older, but the NFL players will be locked out of NFL facilities. That may not mean much, right now, because there aren't any organized team activities taking place. There are players receiving rehabilitation due to injury, however. Those players will be immediately effected. In the coming weeks and months, the face of the NFL will be different than in years past. Instead of OTAs taking place in the spring and teams vehemently pursuing free agents, there will be nothing. If you thought the off-season was boring in the past, well, you ain't seen nothing yet.
The only thing that can save us from an offseason of boredom is if the NFL and NFLPA can reach an agreement. Will it happen in the eleventh hour, today? A week from now? A month from now?
I honestly don't know and anyone who says they do is out of their element. The only thing we can say for certain is that there are a ton of football fans out there who want to watch football this season, myself included. There are intense negotiations about a boat load of money going on behind closed doors, but to the fans, that means nothing. All we want is football.
As fans, whether there is a lockout or not, we should prepare ourselves for life without football, similar to the way people prepared for Y2K. The only difference being that Y2K was non-consequential and the NFL Lockout won't be. Personally (if there is no football), I plan on watching a lot of Reds baseball, watching some NASCAR, learning how to play the guitar, and creating a computer that is self-aware. Or would it create itself?... I don't know, right now. I guess I'll have more time to figure out the details if there is no football, so I'll just let "future me" work out the details
What do you plan to do during an NFL lockout?