Is Tiger Woods still relevant?

No.

(Easiest blog post ever.)

Who else is losing interest in the NFL?

So nothing's currently going on with the NFL’s labor issues and absolutely nothing will happen until after the upcoming June third hearing.  Two whole days of court mandated labor talks recently wrapped up with guess what...no agreement.  So let's recap and deconstruct.

The Players initially won what seemed like a major legal battle when a judge lifted the lockout and ordered the official league year to begin.  The next day, the NFL Owners appealed this decision to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, who a few days later ruled that the lockout was indeed legal, pending the aforementioned June third hearing.  We'll know the outcome of that hearing in mid to late June, but the prevailing opinion by legal analysts is that the Owners will triumph again.  Here's why...the first ruling for the Players’ was from a Democrat appointed judge, where the Owners’ victorious ruling was from a three judge panel, of which two are Republican appointees.  The dissenting opinion in the latest 2-1 vote was from a Democrat appointed judge.  So where we are now is 2-2, Republican appointed judges versus Democrat ones, an even split.  The judges can't even agree if the lockout is legal and should thus keep going, so how should we?

One of the main issues I struggle with is a side issue of the lockout.  A major fact remains, no Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) exists between the Owners and Players.  Even if there was no lockout, the Owners opted out of the CBA which was agreed to in 2006.  If the final final final ruling came down tomorrow after the appeals and appeals, what rules of free agency, revenue sharing, rookie wage scale, etc. would the Owners and Players operate under?  There is no agreement.

As it stands right now, the owners are in a very good position because the latest ruling went in their favor and that ruling is expected to be extended.  The players are hoping to get money from the TV rights lawsuit that they won, but how quickly will they burn through it?  There are hundreds of players in the league who would all want a piece of that estimated nine figure pie...come to think of it, I'd like at least a tiny sliver myself.

(So to my neighbor who's been asking for a new post, Happy Birthday...literally.  As much as you want a piece of that pie too, you're getting cake.)

Because talks are not taking place between the Owners and Players and the legal ruling won't be reveled for a month or so, football this fall will be impacted.  There is the real possibility that games will be missed, but even if an agreement is reached (relatively) soon, the quality of the performance on the field will be lower.  Teams are missing minicamp and organized team activities (OTAs) now, and even if players say they're enjoying their time off, a reduced number of repetitions does hurt the quality of the product.  I also believe that rookies will have less of an impact this season, especially offensive ones because they're not able to work with their new coaches, learning new NFL schemes and terminology and the overall way of doing NFL business.

Will we watch the NFL in the fall?  Sure.  Will the fan base be smaller?  My guess is yes.  Not significantly, but some fans are growing more disenfranchised by the day.

The Broncos were terrible last year, so my love for the NFL was already waning...unfortunately it's slipped even farther.