Hallelujah

After a series of false starts that would've made Ryan Cook blush, and more contradictions than a David Kahn press conference, it appears that fate has finally smiled upon America's football fans.  That's right fellow pigskin lovers, our long national nightmare appears to be over: NFL football is back.

Most of us felt like this would happen, after weeks of listening to reports of a deal being close, it was difficult to believe that actual dollars would be forefeited through the cancellation of games.  After all, this was the free money of preseason that was about to be squandered, the part of the season that teams get to extort their season ticketholders into paying for under threat of no regular season ducats.  Any business that can strong arm it's customers into paying full price for an admittedly substandard product is not going to let that opportunity fall by the wayside.

But even the comfort of knowing that push was finally coming to shove, with a tangible consequence emerging after 4 months of inaction, was not enough to totally dispell fears of a doomsday scenario.  What if some other hidden caveat emerged that scuttled the whole thing?  What if some element of the various legal manuvers cropped up in the 11th hour?  The common sense argument of "these guys aren't possibly dumb enough to screw up their license to print money" still wasn't enough to completely convince that things were on track.  Not to mention that the steady stream of reports, rumors and retractions made it tough to follow anything that was going on, you were better off unpugging and just waiting the thing out.

Because even if you knew things would eventually work themselves out, and football would be played, there remained questions about the quality.  Would teams have enough time to effectively prepare?  Would a rash of injuries ravage the league due to lack of conditioning? Now it appears we finally have closure, and not a moment too soon if you watched any of the Twins series over the weekend.  I can only assume these developments are due to the fact that Roger Goodell reads the blog and was unsettled by the anger in my post from earlier this month.  Along the same lines, Minnesota Govenor Mark Dayton fashioned an agreement to end the state shutdown one day after that post appeared.  Coincidence?  I think not.  Next I turn my attention toward this debt ceiling thing that Congress seems to be having so much trouble with, give me a couple of days.

Beer?  Check. Football?  Check.  Baseball team in it's death rattle creating a serious need for something else to occupy my time?  Check.  Starting tomorrow, it's going to be a whirlwind few days, so hold onto your hat.  But first, take a moment to reflect, and thank whatever higher power you believe is running things that football is back.