It appears a virtual certainty now that sanity and reason have made their goal-line stand. That greed has been intercepted in the end zone. That NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will be dropping back and completing a $9.3 billion pass to a wide-open DeMaurice Smith, all the way to the one-inch line. That Goodell will follow Kevin Mawae and barrel into the end zone the way Alan Ameche followed his blockers in The Greatest Game Ever Played, and spike this mindless lockout.
And we will all raise our arms high to the great gridiron in the sky, where Vince Lombardi and Papa Bear Halas and Wellington Mara will be smiling, and signal:
Touchdown, NFL!
The NFL will not be The Greatest Game Never Played.
Sing it, Hank Williams Jr.: Are you ready for some football?
NFL owners won’t get everything they wanted when, barring unnecessary roughness by either side, they are on course to ratify a new collective bargaining agreement Thursday in Atlanta. They will get plenty. NFL players won’t get everything they wanted. They will get plenty.
We appear set to get the only thing we ever wanted. We will get a football season unscarred by labor lunacy. A 16-game football season that starts on time.
It’s a shame we have been forced to wait on pins and needles for sudden-death overtime for the billionaires and millionaires to reach the conclusion that it would be unadulterated folly to kill the $9.3 billion golden goose. A shame that it often takes Cuban Missile Crisis-type brinksmanship for cooler heads to prevail. A shame that Cortland doesn’t get to host the Jets and Albany doesn’t get to host the Giants. A shame that too many good people were forced to pay, either with pay cuts or their jobs.
I never believed there was any way Commissioner Goodell was going to let the divide between hard-line and moderate owners sabotage the season. It would have been an unfathomable, unconscionable breach of the public trust that could have haunted the NFL for years, for starters, and an indelible stain on his legacy.
So, better late than never. Because we are on the verge of getting our autumn and winter Sundays and Mondays back.
We will get:
A frenetic, two-week free agency period when Giants general manager Jerry Reese (sign Ahmad Bradshaw and clear the air with Osi Umenyiora) and Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum (sign Sidney Rice and send Rex Ryan out to recruit Plaxico Burress and, yes, even Randy Moss, if you can’t sign Santonio Holmes or Braylon Edwards) need to remind us why they are among the best and the brightest in the game.
Rex guaranteeing that the Jets will be first to land a football player on Mars.
The Jets against Bill Belichick and Tom Brady.
The Giants against Michael Vick and — dare we say? — Burress. Not to mention Umenyiora’s pal, LeSean McCoy. Brady and Peyton Manning and Drew Brees on the gridiron instead of in the courtroom.
The Steelers possibly in the market for a third-down back named Matt Lauer — sorry, couldn’t resist — Tiki Barber.
Ray Lewis trying one more time to drag the Ravens to another Super Bowl.
Matthew Stafford poised to make the Lions — yes, the Lions! — playoff contenders.
Aaron Rodgers trying every bit as hard as Jenn Sterger to put Brett Favre in the rear-view mirror and get the Packers a repeat.
The John Fox-Tim Tebow Era in Denver.
The Texans trying one more time again to get over the Peyton Manning hump.
Philip Rivers and the Chargers trying one more time to get over the Norv Turner hump.
Pros, as well as cons, who defy the commissioner’s Personal Conduct Policy.
Loser’s laments about the officiating.
Instant-replay controversies.
Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens needing new teams, and wouldn’t it be something if it happened to be the same team?
With the imminent deal, we won’t have to go apple-picking on autumn Sundays. We will make our significant others football widows and widowers again with a clear conscience. We will lose the vigorish to our bookie again. We will start preparing for our fantasy drafts. We will tailgate in the parking lots again.
You will paint your face green (Jets) or blue (Giants) again. You will wear your Manning No. 10 jersey or your Sanchez No. 6 jersey again.
So get ready to open up those doors at the Timex Performance Center and the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center and at team facilities across America, and pass out those playbooks and shoulder pads, and let the hitting begin. Run to daylight sounds a lot better than run to the lawyers.
First-and-goal. Finally.