When the NFL unveiled the 2011 schedule in April, plenty of people wondered why the league would do it in the throes of a lockout. When the NFL tinkered with the rules in May, folks likewise shook their heads over efforts to make players safer at a time when keeping them from working is providing the ultimate protection against concussions.
The NFL has once again put the cart before the horse, sending out on Monday an e-mail blast urging fans to activate their fantasy football leagues through NFL.com.
“Raise your game,” the electronically-delivered ad states. “We raised our game so you could raise yours.”
“Raised our game”? Or “razed our game”?
Look, I use the NFL.com fantasy football application every year. And I like it. And if there’s a 2011 season, I’ll use it again. But the last thing I’m going to do in early June with no light at the end of the lockout tunnel is activate or join a league.
It’s not an affirmative boycott. It’s reality. At a certain level, there’s also a little bit of a jinx mentality involved.
Either way, if all the effort spent by the league doing things that are premised on the lockout ending were devoted to ending the lockout, the lockout would have ended by now.