The NFL Lockout hasn't kept fans from wondering about what the 2011 draft did for their problem areas, or what free agency might do—the allure of the wishcasting season is simply too great—but it has cast a bit of a pall over the proceedings. Every time a St. Louis Rams fan talks about how great Chris Long and Robert Quinn will be together, he must add whenever that actually is. Every time Sam Bradford shows the maturity we hoped we'd see years from now, we must say hopefully he gets to show it off. To make things worse, SB Nation recently examined the nightmare scenario in which Week One of the 2011 NFL season is a washout.
↵The end result has nine weeks, a late Super Bowl, free agency beginning in midseason, and a lot of newly minted baseball fans, so far as I can tell. It might not send the sport into eulogy mode, like baseball circa 1995-1997, but if Roger Goodell and company would like to know about what a slow, stunted season can do to a sport's long-term financial prospects they should ask the NBA in the middle of the 98-99 travesty. And then hope for a Kobe Bryant, a LeBron James of its own...