It's on paper now: the NFL Lockout is over

In case you were waiting for the fat lady to sing. Here you go. The lockout is over. "Zurück vom Ring!"

Now you can exhale

Players have approved

The vote is unanimous

The Lockout will result in better preseason games

NFL teams are forced to squeeze months of preparation into just a few weeks. How will this effect the quality of the preseason games? Will teams be more careful with their quality players or will they need the opportunity of the preseason to cover what was missed from a regular off-season?

Expect the 2011 preseason to be more exciting than normal. Of course teams will want to be careful with their quality players but that's not much different than the perception of any other preseason. Teams are always concerned with injuries. The difference, this year, is that teams have not had the chance to work everything out in the off-season. This leaves the preseason as the main opportunity for teams to build chemistry among their players and gel for the regular season. Also, factor-in that we are heading for one of the most interesting weeks in football in regards to free agent signings and trades. Teams will want to use the preseason games to test out their new investments. Fans will also respond with more enthusiasm. The lockout caused us to be more anxious than normal and now it's, "game time!" Everyone is amped up to see some football. Preseason games usually just give us a taste but this year there will be a lot more to sample.

There's plenty of games to get excited about in the first week of the preseason, one in particular being the Ravens versus the Eagles. Could this be a Superbowl 46 preview?


There's some history here with the Ravens playing against Michael Vick in the preseason. Back in 2003 when Vick was with the Falcons (and on the cover of Madden), he was tackled by Adalius Thomas, which resulted in a broken leg. That kept Vick out for the entire season. You can call that a big impact game. How will this year's match-up play out? We'll have to see. 

"What time is it!"

The good news is here. ESPN and Yahoo Sports report that the NFLPA is expected to vote for and approve the new deal tomorrow, which will end the lockout.

Some fans may still be anxious to here the final word. Many of us believe it's not done until it's done. One small hiccup might be the class action suit against the league, which includes plaintiffs Brees, Manning and Brady. But NFL expert analysts, including ESPN's Adam Schefter, ensure that tomorrow's vote is "more of a formality" and that the lockout will indeed end and the most exciting week in off-season football drama is to follow.

This is going to be a great week for football fans. There will be plenty of juicy NFL news reports: trades, free agent signings, training camps, etc. So saddle-up because this is going to be fun.

I'm excited to open recruitment for my league the BFFG. I've been waiting in the background for some time now. I began the 'heads-up' phone calls, emails and texts about a week ago. It seems that's good timing. I expect BFFG members to be even more excited than the average fan. Being part of a steady fantasy football league makes you feel that much more connected to the real NFL. "It's game time!"

We're almost there: NFL owners approve new CBA

Roger Goodell makes the announcement that the NFL owners agree to the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The end of the lockout pends approval from the players union.

The owners are first to cross the finish line here and that helps their image. The players may not be willing to flip the switch just yet. Expect them to want their remaining issues to be given some attention before voting for the new CBA. Understand that they are in a situation where every hour that goes by may cost them support of public opinion. Fans should welcome the new season satisfied that one organization knows how to compromise.

It won't be long now. Expect to watch the preseason into the regular season on-time.

NFL-Team owners vote to approve new deal with players

Owners approve proposed labor deal

Financing a league

Handling the league finances is a very important duty for the fantasy commissioner. In order to run a legitimate fantasy league that awards prizes you have to:

• collect and secure the league dues,
• determine the prize levels and
• payout to winners at the end of the season. 

I've gone through a lot of changes with this process in my ten years as commissioner. This year is no exception as I will be trying a new on-line system. It's appropriately called LeagueSafe.

When I conducted off-line draft parties everyone attended bringing cash or check and I got all the money up front, for the most part. When I made the switch to an on-line draft it got a little bit trickier. No longer was I meeting everyone at the same time to collect dues. Instead I was meeting members at different times and, in some cases, making separate types of arrangements. For example, if I met a member at a sports bar it's conceivable for them to just want to pick up the check in exchange for paying the dues. It seemed reasonable. When you get down to it it's all relative, right?

In fact the biggest mistake you can make as a commissioner is to tie up the fantasy league finances with other things. When out with friends, who offer to pick up the bar tab in return for paying the dues, you should respectfully decline. It's a fine suggestion and they are probably just trying to make it easier for you but it won't work out well at the end of the season when you have to pay out to winners, especially with holiday shopping looming.

Here are my main suggestions when dealing with fantasy league finances.

• Keep league finances isolated.
• Don't involve any other deals you may have with your friends and other members in the league.
• Use an on-line system like PayPal or the new LeagueSafe.
• Collect the dues before members register their teams.
• Try to get it all done before the draft.
• Try to construct 1st, 2nd and 3rd place prize levels. 
• Make distribution of the winnings as simple as possible. 

I've used PayPal as my league's payment system the past two years. It's sufficient but, I feel, not all that user friendly. For example, members have had issues setting up an account and getting it to accept check cards. It's not that aesthetically appealing either. Then there's the fees. If you use it to both collect and payout then you're hit with the 2.9% fee twice in addition to another 30 cent fee each way as well. There also may be a withdrawal fee. And if a member pays via credit card without setting up an account then distributing winnings on-line is not possible for that member. This forces the commissioner to make the withdrawal themselves and either mail a personal check or deliver cash personally to pay that winner. Both can be very inconvenient and time consuming. The final word: PayPal is ok but I think one can do better. LeagueSafe, on the other hand, looks to be just right for fantasy football.

I'm going to use LeagueSafe for the first time this season. I've done some research and like what it offers.

• Convenience: you can pay with credit/check card or e-check.
• There are several simple options to distribute prizes to the winners.
• It's cheaper.
• It's easy to set up an account compared to PayPal.
• The site is designed for fantasy sports enthusiasts and it looks great.
• But most importantly, it's secure.

So far I've set up my league bank in LeagueSafe and made my own payment. Everything went ok. I contacted their customer service through email to ask a few more questions about security. They replied promptly and provided much detail about their Web security. LeagueSafe uses 128 bit encryption. They are tested and certified daily by McAfee. The site just went through a redesign phase and it looks very professional.

With the NFL lockout expected to end soon, I'm comfortable sending payment requests and getting members registered for the league. I'm excited to use LeagueSafe and feel that it will contribute legitimacy to my league, which is ten years old now and running-strong. 

In mid-summer, fantasy football recruiting pends end of the lockout

For years, Fourth of July celebrations have been all about cookouts, fireworks and talking about football. This summer, however; football talks are taboo.

The NFL lockout has certainly placed a gloom over anticipation for another season of America's favorite sport. It seems that nobody wants to talk about football, at least not until this lockout thing ends. Simply bringing up the subject induced negativity and cynicism with my friends at a Fourth of July gathering last weekend. Can't blame 'em? I too have sensibilities about my opinions of the subject, as you may have read from this blog.

Here's my biggest problem right now. If I can't bring up football then I also can't inject any discussions about my fantasy league. I can't start recruiting. Will my fellow league members get side-tracked and lose interest? Will I be able to recruit enough players in time to start the BFFG? So far I've emailed and FaceBook-ed everybody and have received little to no response. Boo-hoo! "Just relax" I keep telling myself. It will all work out. It better. I hate the thought of joining a public fantasy league alone.

Sports media continues to report overall optimism that the NFL Players Union and the owners are making progress over the new collective bargaining agreement. The main obstacle, which is the overall revenue split between players and owners, is mostly finished. Still, issues remain including some class-action lawsuits players have against the league, which could probably hold things up a bit longer. Periodically we read headlines like today's "Order lifting NFL lockout thrown out" and it doesn't help reinforce the overall optimism. There's ups and downs in this thing.

I'm staying on top of the story. I can't wait to break the news that the lockout is over and we can return to a normal summer of football chatter.