Lockout? What Lockout?

by Patrick Boucher

The NFL Lockout is over. The airwaves and Twittersphere are celebrating like it is Christmas. Reporters and ‘insiders’ are proclaiming “football is back.” I didn’t know it was gone. The Packers won the Super Bowl on Feb. 6th the preseason will start the second weekend in August (sorry Hall of Fame game), and the Packers will host the Saints on Sept. 8th. So, if football was gone, where did it go? The draft was still held. OK, so we missed free agency/minicamps/OTAs. Wow, what a tragedy. I really missed out on having ESPN show clips of Tom Brady throwing to Wes Welker in shorts and a t-shirt while Adam Schefter reports something inane like the Patriots are going to cut some 3rd string DE that you’ve never heard of.

But here is the thing about sports media (which is increasingly visible over Twitter) and the last 4+ months: They have loved every minute of this lockout. I follow the usual suspects on Twitter (profootballtalk, Trey Wingo, Rich Eisen, Adam Schefter, et al), having watched ESPN/NFL Network on and off since Monday, I have noticed that everyone is acting “relieved” that the lockout is over. As if the past few months have been some painful, grueling process for them. If you ask me, this 24/7 lockout/labor negotiation “reporting” – and I use that term loosely – has made work for these guys when there would normally just be a few months preparing for training camps and boring reporting like 32 teams in 32 days, or Mel Kiper’s draft grades or blah blah blah.

I would say there were about 5 people with any sense during this lockout: Jason Whitlock, Jay Glazer (who despite not bothering to report any of the “breakthroughs” during the whole process was the first to report the NFLPA approved the deal early this morning), Andrew Brandt (who is basically an NFL mouthpiece), Chris Mortenson (who is basically an ESPN mouthpiece, but did have the most accurate knowledge of anyone, along with John Clayton), and maybe Jason LaCanfora. Here’s the thing; everyone in today’s 24/7 news coverage cycle wants to be the first to predict something. How much of ESPN/NFL Network coverage is devoted to predictions? Each network pays people just to speculate on stuff: Where is this guy going? Who is going to get upset this week? Who will be drafted where? The lockout has been a huge vehicle for NFL reporters to whip it out and say “mine’s bigger.” Give me a break. I care about reality, not speculation, who reported it first, who has the most “inside connections.” I care about football being played on Sundays, and the Packers having a chance to defend their title. That is happening. We’re fine. Lets get on with it.

Jason Whitlock just tweeted on Monday: “Has anyone apologized for contributing to this Lockout Hysteria??” He has held the stance during this whole lockout (see: Jason Whitlock's appearance on PFT) that the mainstream NFL media and insider types are creating hysteria and drama around this lockout basically because they are worried that in the NFL misses games or loses popularity in the USA that they might not be making as much money themselves, because there will be nothing to report on.

My point is this, and I have held this since before last season was even over: The average NFL fan doesn’t care about the business side of football unless games are missed. I am a huge sports fan, and did not believe one bit this entire time that games would be missed. The NFL is not that stupid to allow games to be missed; there is too much money to be raked in. Most people really assumed that this would get figured out in July, and lo and behold, it has. All of this hysteria and doom and gloom talk about the labor situation really was only interesting to about 10% of the fan base. The NFL has hardcore fans, don’t get me wrong, but the way the last few months were reported was like the world would come to an end if a couple weeks of the season were missed. Calm down everyone, lets just get back to enjoying pro football for what it is: awesome entertainment.

Response by Pete:

Great point about the perceptions of “loss” during the lockout. I’ll admit I was actually fine with missing some preseason games – and even thought that might happen – but wasn’t going to be ultimately worried until regular season games were threatened. It will also be interesting if the News Powers That Be overreact to the NBA lockout in the same way. The ‘woe is me’ aspect works for both sports. With the NFL the woe was that there was even the slightest possibility that America would be deprived of its number one sport because the millionaires and billionaires couldn’t agree on dividing their giant piles of money. The NBA lockout carries the ominous weight of a broken system run by financially ignorant people. The complexities of the problem should garner legitimate reporting, so it will be very intriguing to see what hollow way the ‘journalists’ can amp up NBA discussion.

Oh yeah, the NFL will be going on, so I guess we won’t care until February. Nevermind.