The Lockout and Draft Updates

By now many of you have heard of the NFL's failure to negotiate a new deal that resulted in the disenfranchising of the Players Union and the lockout of the NFL pertaining to team operations. A blink of hope came during draft week when U.S. District Judge Susan Nelson lifted the lockout under the assumption that a delayed or cancelled season would be very detrimental to NFL and non-NFL related business, among other things, including player opportunities and such. The NFL challenged this in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, being granted a stay that essentially restarted the lockout and once again cut off communications between teams, coaches, and players. Now, players have begun to organize private collective workouts, as the traditional start of minicamps and OTAs draw near. Although some believe that the lockout will be resolved during the summer, the truth is that it has already been a painfully black stain on the league. The loss of any games would be especially distressing, especially the 10th anniversary September 11th games, considering the momentous feat that was achieved only a few days ago. At this point, the owners and players should try to settle their differences rather than stake out their claims and try to get the most bang for their buck. A supposed contingency plan (no division games in first few weeks and several bye weeks between conference finals and Super Bowl) that the NFL has put in place is still not enough, since any missed games would already be a failure to compromise. Screw the 18 game season, just give us 16 per team and I'm sure everyone will be fine. This lockout has undoubtedly hurt the fans the most, so once they return to the negotiating table, they'd better figure out a solution to earn our trust back as well.

Also, in other news, we at UTTQ watched the draft this weekend (our first round mock got 6 slots right). There were many surprises, as we would expect, but frankly we can't necessarily assign grades to each team. Who knows how many Marques Colstons or Tom Bradys are out there? Same goes for the Charles Rogers and Akili Smiths. It's impossible to know just how well a team will do with their draft prospects, since potentially better ones could come through free agency (once that begins). If we ever get to doing a team-by-team analysis before the start of next season, we may allude to the rookies who have made it that far and could have a great impact on their respective clubs. That is, if there is a next season....