After hours of ESPN coverage, hundreds of reporter’s lies and disgruntled NFL player tweets, the NFL Lockout has finally come to an end.
“This is a long time coming, and football’s back,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said, “and that’s the great news for everybody.”
Last week I said that a deal would be signed by Friday of this week, which is the best analysis I’ve heard since the beginning of the lockout from “experts.” Every reporter and analyst swore up and down that they had inside information and they knew EXACTLY when the NFL Lockout would come to an end and we believed them. Until it didn’t happen.
It seems like this time of year is always hectic and filled with rumors and lies. Last year it was the LeBron saga and this year it’s the NFL. Every time I flipped past all the 27,456 ESPN channels, a ticker at the bottom was claiming that “sources close to the situation” was giving a timeline for when the lockout would be over, which we soon deemed false information.
What’s the lesson from this? Our information is just as good as theirs. Just because they have a title after the comma attached to their name doesn’t make them any more knowledgeable about a situation.
The NFL Players Association met Monday morning and voted on the deal that was signed by the NFL owners last week. “We didn’t get everything that either side wanted … but we did arrive at a deal that we think is fair and balanced,” NFLPA rep DeMaurice Smith said. “I know it has been a very long process since the day we stood here that night in March. But our guys stood together when nobody thought we would. And football is back because of it.”
Roger Goodell was present and all smiles along with everyone else who hasn’t received much sleep in the past month while they’ve tried to hammer down this deal.
A tentative timeline would allow NFL clubs to start signing 2011 draft picks and rookie free agents on Tuesday. Conversations with veteran free agents also could start Tuesday, and their signings could begin Friday.
After working out a few of the CBA kinks, we won’t have to hear about a lockout again for a decade, thank God!
