Thursday, October 20, 2011

No NFL? No Problem

[Editors Note- This was originally published in the Water Street Journal in July]

The possibility of no NFL football this season due to the lockout is edging toward reality, so it’s better to start preparing before we’re hit with withdrawal pains. Luckily, there are some pros to not having the NFL fill up our Sunday afternoons.

We’ll live in the real world instead of the fantasy world
– No longer will you feel the sting of a dropped touchdown pass by Stevie Johnson that would have meant a fantasy football victory. We’ll have more time to get upset over reality, like that C on your anthropology paper or the girl who so rudely rejected you at the bar the night before.

No more Terry Bradshaw – He’s bombastic and inarticulate, and he’s inescapable if you watch the NFL. A little less Terry means a little more serenity for the rest of us. If I wanted to watch someone scream at me on TV, I’d turn on Jim Cramer.

More time to recover from a wild Saturday night
– While rising at 1 p.m. shouldn’t be all that difficult in theory, those of us who experience the Sunday slog know its treachery. Now, we won’t have to drag ourselves out of bed for kick-off; we can focus all of our energy on recouping and swearing off tequila (until next weekend). This time is also useful for recounting hazy details from the night before.

Brett Favre can’t make a comeback
– The best thing about the lockout: Brett Favre cannot un-retire. He’ll be restricted to playing backyard football in his rough-and-tumble Wrangler jeans. Whether this leaves him more time to play around with his cell phone or not, remains to be seen.