NFL Trade Deadline 2012 passes; nobody, including Steven Jackson and the St. Louis Rams, notices

The 2012 NFL Trade Deadline is in the books, as of Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m. CDT. Unsurprisingly enough, after weeks of speculation, nothing happened. Steven Jackson is with Daryl Richardson and the St. Louis Rams for the rest of the season, Dwayne Bowe will have to hate Kansas City in silence, and DeAngelo Williams will go on disappointing fantasy football players from his perch in Cam Newton's disappointing offense.

On Wednesday, when it seemed certain that the status quo would win again, we tried our best to explain why the NFL trade deadline is so boring, when it's one of the most exciting parts of seemingly every other sport's seasons. Our best guess: Football is the cruelest sport of all to veterans and newcomers to an offense, and veteran offensive imports are the most important part of the average trade deadline blockbuster.

Whatever the reason—and the NFL, having already pushed the deadline back two weeks this year, clearly wants to understand it themselves—things just never seem to work out like we expect them to. You'd think that would be a lesson to us, one of these years, but there's a reason the NFL and its fans try so hard to puff it up every season: Trade rumors are fun. Maybe next year.