There are a few things I need to address now that the NFL Players Association has ratified and agreed to the 10-year proposal that the owners passed 29-1 this past Thursday, thus ending the lockout this afternoon. 

To those who are saying “football is back!”, I view it differently. 

Football isn’t back…yet.  The season is another month away.  Football is still in its off-season.  The last game of the season was the Super Bowl.  The 2011 regular season doesn’t start until after Labor Day.  What football had we missed? 

Answer:  none. 

The only game that will not be played between now and the regular season is an insignificant one at best:  the Hall of Fame game, which is an exhibition.  No games have been played during this lockout.  There were signs several weeks ago that if an agreement was imminent, the regular season would be played.  The exhibition games would be affected.  Those games don’t even count towards any records. 

We didn’t miss any football at all.  What we missed is the free-for-fall of free agency.  Who’s coming, who’s going, new faces popping up with different teams. 

Plainly speaking, what we missed is talking about football.  If we missed seeingfootball so much, then we would have filled that void by re-watching football highlights on You Tube, going back through our DVR’s for games we recorded, went out and played sandlot, flag, or 7-on-7 football, watched the Iowa Barnstormers, Canadian Football League, and the Indoor Football League. 

But, as lemmings following the pied piper, our world revolves around the NFL, first and foremost. 

The agreement didn’t signal that football is back.  It really means that the 2011 NFL regular season will not be interrupted by work stoppage or lockouts. 

Exhibition games don’t count, unless you’re a gambling degenerate in a Las Vegas sportsbook casino. 

I’m relieved that both sides have voted in favor of a new long-term deal to ensure that the season will not be halted or delayed.  Don’t give either side a celebratory thank you, because their job was to work towards putting together a new deal.  That’s what they were supposed to do. 

Now, if you excuse me, baseball season is still in full swing. 

Football, for me, doesn’t start until after August 5th.