There was a time when many people—not all, but many—didn't think we'd have football this Thursday. That the Labor Kerfuffle of 2011 would cost us the beginning of the season and perhaps all of it.

I never really felt that way.

I could say that really, nobody was going to put a dagger in the back of a billion dollar industry. I could say that since the players knew they'd received a ridiculous contract originally that sanity would prevail and once sabers were sufficiently rattled that a deal would be struck.

I could say a lot of things and they'd all be true to some extent.

Honestly though, I just felt it in my gut.

I felt that we'd be watching the Packers and Saints meet on Thursday night and all would be right in the football world.

The NBA is a mess, baseball is old and hockey is the little brother who tags along.

The NFL is where it's at.

Of course, not everything is perfect. As the economy continues to struggle, teams continue to have to deal with an antiquated and ridiculous black out system. Somehow when a fan can't afford the six or seven hundred dollars to go to a game with his/her family or cannot afford the exorbitant PSL rates, the league thinks they can convince them to do so by blacking out their home team.

As if punishing them for being unable to support a team they love by taking the team from them will make them sell their car or take out a second mortgage to come to the game. Rather, I think it might eventually force them to 1) find alternative sources of viewing the game *coughinternetcough*, 2) find a team whom they can watch on Direct TV and become a fan or the worst 3) find something else to do with their time and money.

If you think it's inconceivable that people will walk away from a popular game, just ask baseball and hockey.

Somehow, some way they need to find a way to get people to the games without punishing those who can't afford it. Since it's absolutely true that the stadium experience in many venues are becoming less and less about the average fan, why punish the average fan? If you want them back, make the games affordable.

Now, not every franchise has that problem. What it really continues to come down to is small market vs big market. Too many small market struggle and always will. It's the nature of it and while a small market like Green Bay has flourished recently it hasn't always been so and for every Packers type success there is a Bills type failure waiting in the wings.

I believe in Darwin; the idea that the strongest survive.

I also know what happens when a city loses its' team. Having lived in Los Angeles before and after the Raiders/Rams left I saw many fans devastated by losing their team. That the teams were moved more by greed than by need is just more painful for the fans, but almost irrelevant to the bigger picture.

How did Baltimore feel when the Colts left? I have a fair idea I can call a buddy or two in LA today and ask them what they think about Georgia Frontiere to find out. It wouldn't be printable, that I can promise you.

I don't have a solution to the Bills or Jacksonville or any other small market team's problems. I can guarantee you it isn't going to be helped by blacking games out. It's not going to help Jacksonville, it's not going to help Tampa Bay and it won't help anyone else who loses significant home games to an antiquated rule which does more harm than good.

So when you plug yourself in front of your TV, plant yourself on your favorite bar stool or ponder your fantasy football lineup, consider those souls unable to get their game on *coughinternetcough*.

No matter how good your team is now, next year it could be you staring at the blank screen.