Players Approve Deal to End N.F.L. Lockout

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Now it can be said with certainty: Get ready for some football!

NFL players voted to OK a final deal Monday, days after the owners approved a tentative agreement, and the sides finally managed to put an end to the 4½-month lockout, the longest work stoppage in league history.

"This is a long time coming, and football's back," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said, "and that's the great news for everybody."

The labor dispute comes to a close after claiming one exhibition: the Hall of Fame game between the Bears and Rams, scheduled for Aug. 7 in Canton, Ohio. Otherwise, the entire preseason and regular-season schedules remain intact. Club facilities will open to players Tuesday, when 2011 draft picks and rookie free agents can be signed.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2011/07/25/sports/football/AP-FBN-NFL-Labor.html?pagewanted=all

I love football!

I meant to post about this when I got home and I forgot. I'm getting old.

K&R!

I know they probably all spent hours in the nearest health club every day keeping in good physical condition, seeing as how being in shape enough to play football in the NFL is their job, but won't the first handful of games in the season, after only a month of practice, suck worse than normal?

I think the reduced training time may make many players able to make the hits, but not take the hits. Year-round physical training seems to be the norm these days, but I suspect a great many of them will be entering official training carrying more weight than usual, putting more stress on less-exercised connective tissue. Those who slacked off probably also carry increased risk of injury during weight training and long practice sessions.

I also wonder if the hitting itself might be harder than usual in pre-season, as the lack of formal practice may equalize the field somewhat and give second-stringers a real shot at starting positions--if they step it up.

On the field, it may also result in less efficiency in, for example, certain pass routes, which may expose receivers to more leveling hits and defenders to more inadvertent collisions. Fumbles, batted balls and tipped passes also result in confusion on the field which in turn leads to more injuries.

In short, it's going to be a terrible year for the New York Giants in particular, as that meany Coughlin notoriously insists on making his top-shelf players play hurt. I think that makes them the canary in the coalmine for the rest of the league, and I think that they will be the front runners on the list of injured players by mid-season, and their playoff hopes will quickly diminish from that point.

But hey, it's just a guess.

Edit: Just to further fan the flames among NFC East fans, I'll also point out that it is the Washington football team that has historically capitalized the best on strike-interrupted seasons. If ever they are going to have a decent year under Dan Snyder's ownership, this may be it.