For the National Football League, this is the time of the year that things are supposed to be at their best.  The top four teams in the league are set to square off to see who is going to be a part of the last big contest to see who is the best.  This is the time where the league can point to itself and talk about competition and how great the game is.  Instead, they are looking at a looming problem that could force a work stoppage.

No doubt, during the telecast of the big game, you will hear about this and immediately following it will become big news.  It does bring to mind what happened to baseball in 1994.  They also had a work stoppage that killed their revenues for years.  Even still, baseball holds a different place for Americans than what it did before that time because people got the idea that the sport was full of crybabies that didn’t realize just how good they had it.  The same could be said of football, though at this point it looks to be the ownership of the teams that are in that position rather than the players.

Owners are looking at the money coming in and realizing that they could get more of it for themselves.  Indeed when the money comes in, they take a cut of it before anyone else gets paid.  After that, they get paid again after the players get their cut.  It’s a multi-million dollar business for everyone involved and there is no doubt that owning an NFL Team is a cash cow in this day and age.

Fast forward to after the first part of March and you may see something different when owners lock out their players.  Teams will not be worth near as much if they have no product to sell, or for that matter, an inferior product that no one wants to see.  This is where you enter those that have considered new leagues.  If any one of them is ready, now is the time to capitalize on this situation by offering players that have nowhere to play a place to do it and eager fans to watch it.  Cities like Birmingham, Los Angeles and even some NFL Cities would just simply like to watch their favorite sport, regardless of what shade of paint the uniforms have on them.

NFL Owners need to see that they have it good.  Really good.  No other sport in America brings in as much as football.  If they decide to hold out for more money, the more money may very well head somewhere else.  Time to enter a new USFL or some other upstart that can bring the fans and the players just what they want.  Football, plain and simple, without all of the excess squabbling that will come if this lockout takes place.