Here's a couple of things that scare me:
1) owners and players thinking that they're above the "product" or the "empire" that they've built and thinking that fans will automatically comeback like...like a year without the NFL was no biggie. The NFL owns the sports landscape now. More so than i think MLB EVER did even before their strike.
I'm not saying that NFL fans would never come back...or that it would take them a few years. I think the fans would always be there, once their back playing, because it's still only a 16-game schedule. But i'm wondering about the things on the out-scirts. Marketing, TV contracts...etc. Would they be as large?
If they don't have a year....I don't think the NFL will have the monopoly in the sports landscape it has now.
2)....MOST IMPORTANT....Next year's potential uncapped year scares the bejesus out of me. Once some owner makes a crazy offer to a free agent (like an a-rod deal for lack of a better term)....the other players and agents will see this and they'll fight NEVER to have a salary cap again....and then the league is f*%$#& that's the worst nightmare in my mind. Salary cap HAS to stay.
