You’ve all seen the silliness happen. An NFL strong safety crushes some ball carrier with a bone-rattling hit, then whoops and hollers about the feat for all the cameras to see. Exciting stuff, except for one little problem.
The tackle is 10 yards past the first-down marker. So the safety is ultimately celebrating a failure.
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| Finally, the lockout is gone and the Pack is back. |
That’s what it feels like as this NFL lockout comes to an end. Commissioner Roger Goodell and players’ rep DeMaurice Smith stood before the cameras Monday, chests out and pride wide. Goodell declared, “Football’s back, and that’s the great news for everybody.” Smith spoke of how “it’s important that we talk about the future of football as a partnership.” Exciting stuff.
Except it’s months past the first-down marker.
Make no mistake. Fans should be thrilled that the games they love will start on schedule. Packer Backers can revel in Green Bay’s pending title defense. And everyone can go back to the good old days, when the biggest NFL courtroom dramas involved Cincinnati Bengals.
But the NFL shouldn’t be lighting cigars and pouring champagne. You rejoice in life’s successes, and ending the lockout only marks the conclusion of a failure. The window for celebration expired the minute this lockout started, tarnishing an entire league’s image and throwing an entire fan base into unnecessary turmoil.
If players and owners could reach a mutually satisfactory agreement this week, then they could’ve done so months ago. The issues didn’t change. The total money involved didn’t change. Player safety concerns didn’t change. The only difference between now and then? Less posturing and more pressure, from courts and from the calendar, to make something happening.
Monday’s most poignant moment came when Colts player rep Jeff Saturday publicly thanked Myra Kraft, the recently deceased wife of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, for allowing him to assist in negotiations during her weakest moment. “Without him, this deal does not get done,” Saturday said. “He is a man who helped us save football.”
Did it have to come to that? Did it really take a man leaving the side of his dying wife to ensure the games were played? Was there no way for both sides spare the Krafts this burden by simply coming to their senses earlier?
If so, Kraft showed no bitterness when he stepped to the microphone. He was pure grace.
“First of all,” he said, the eroding effects of mourning still plain for all to see, “I’d like, on behalf of both sides, to apologize to the fans.”
Yes, he started by saying sorry. He finished up with a punch line.
“I hope we gave a little lesson to the people in Washington,” Kraft quipped, “because the debt crisis is a lot easier to fix than this deal was.”
Makes sense. That’s just everyday life. This is football.
Next time, guys, don’t try to save it by ruining it.
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