View From Across the Pond – Lockout Fatigue

The off-season is a very quiet time for an NFL fan in the
UK. Once the Vince Lombardi trophy has been won, the television coverage of
“American” football becomes pretty sparse. During the regular season we are
spoilt with four live games a week, rising to five in the second half of the
season with Thursday Night Football.

From February onwards though that feast is followed by
famine, with only the odd episode of NFL
Total Access keeping us in touch with what is going on.

Normally though at this time of year, the coverage starts to
ramp up, usually following the NFL Draft. In the last few years, this has been
televised live, although the move to Thursday night for round one means a very
late night and a struggle to get up for work the next day.

Once the draft is concluded, then the coverage starts to
build towards the season opening, with more Total
Access shows. However this year is slightly different, and with the lockout
showing no real signs of ending, despite several false dawns, there is very
little news for a UK Titans fan to get his teeth into.

During the soccer (I hate calling it that!) off-season in
the UK, our press is full of transfer stories, which team is going to sign
which player and for how much. With the lock-out, the NFL has seen even that
talk diluted, with free agents unable to sign for new teams and franchises
unable to trade players. It seems amazing to me that there is very little talk
regarding the future of Vince Young. Clearly he will be moving on, the question
is who will be willing to take the gamble on him, and what if anything will the
Titans get for him?

The “highlight” of the week was a mildly entertaining
interview on Total Access with
Cortland Finnegan. It was fun to see his fight with Andre Johnson again, but he
was unable to offer any real gems of information, purely because he has hardly
seen any of his teammates due to the recent birth of his daughter.

Here’s hoping that there’s a little more to talk about next
week. This lock-out is becoming a huge turn-off.