Lock Out With My C*ck Out

Good afternoon ladies and jelly beans (it is just about spring, after all), and welcome to this weeks regularly scheduled goalie fights. For those of you wondering, yes, I will be eating my generous portion of crow for all my NCAA picks from wednesday, but lets at least wait for the tourny to finish.

No, today's topic is one of a more serious note. While we here at Goalie Fights value humor in our sports talk, sometimes, we need to get real. Realer than even the streets. Specifically, the shenanigans of the NFL 'lockout' are well beyond even superfan levels of acceptable. We all know the numbers by now; $9 billion that needs to be split between owners and players, $1 billion more for owners right off the top than the last CBA, 18 games desired by owners, yadda yadda yadda.

Honestly, they could be arguing about $9 trillion, I could care less. Its essentially monopoly money for the owners at this point, and 78% of the players will be bankrupt eventually anyway, so who cares. I'm not on the players side, I'm not on the owners side, even though they both are clamoring for my support with varying levels of soullessness. But, I am on someone's side. A side that has gotten no recognition, no support, and no love. The side that didn't get to sit down at the table with a list of demands. The third side. The fan side.

I am not speaking in some sort of altruistic metaphor here either. I mean, there are owners/league guys, there are players, and then there are fans. The fans are as real a side as either of the other two, do not doubt that for a second. The only problem is, up until now, nobody has bothered to point out that the fans are a legit group, and they do not need to take all this crap lying down. They NFL and NFLPA both know that the fans are what fund their precious money making behemoth. They both know that the fans hold more power than either. Thats why they keep slandering each other in public forums. Their fortunes are tied to public support, so they pander to the masses. But in doing that, they cunningly leave out that the fans have an extra option.

While the owners and players would have you believe that you must support one or the other, the educated sports fan knows they can support neither. But open your eyes now to the fourth option, that of pulling support for both! The owners can lockout the players. The players can strike against the owners. Either way, the fans get screwed. Well, its time to rise up and rage against this football machine. What I am about to propose may seem ludicrous, to big, and unpossible. But thats okay. Thats what will make it special when we pull it off.

Football will return, eventually. When it does, we the fans need to send a message to the players and the owners, the players, and to every major sport that ever even considers a work stoppage as an option again. When that first Sunday comes, when that first kickoff gets kicked, we put our foot down. That first sunday, we blackout the NFL. TVs off. Seats empty. Scores not checked. Fantasy football lineups not set. We the fans must boycott everything NFL for one sunday. Just one. One game out of a season. Don't go to the games, don't watch the games on tv. Nothing. Complete blackout.

Yes, season ticket holders will have already paid for the game, and tv contracts will have paid the NFL millions, and jersey sales and merchandise revenue will still pay the league. But it isn't about the money. It never is for the fans. We bust our asses in 9-5s, second shifts, third shifts, weekend hours, overtime, second jobs, third jobs, waiting tables, pouring steel, cleaning, day trading, nursing, and teaching. We earn every cent we get. And we spend it on a game we love to watch. We throw on our jerseys, buy the doritos, drink the Pabst Blue Ribbon. Loyally, as our fathers and mothers and aunts and uncles and brothers taught us. This is how the NFL repays us? They can't agree over $9 billion while the american people supported them through one of the worst economic downturns the nation has ever seen?

The time is coming for the fans to stand up together and close our eyes to the league. They can have the money. Shut your eyes now and imagine every stadium in america empty as the cameras roll, as the blitz takes down the quarterback. Imagine the look on the owners faces when not a single fan sits in their seats. Sure, their bank accounts won't really suffer. But that won't matter. If we can come together for one sunday, we can come together for any. We can lock them out. We, the fans, propel the league, not the owners or the players. WE, THE FANS, WILL NOT BE TAKEN FOR GRANTED.

Its never been about money for us. Its never even really been about football. Its been about family, friends, food, beer, rest, relaxation, and fandom. There is a sunday coming. The players are going to call you to the stadium. The owners are going to call you to the games. The media is going to tell you its what you've been waiting for, and they will be right; we will have been waiting for this sunday for months. And we will unite, together, as fans of the NFL. And we will not go to the games. We will not tune in to the broadcasts. We will blackout the NFL. And for one beautiful sunday, we will remind everyone that the fans are what make professional sports possible.