Friday, March 18, 2011

SPORTS>>Not much locked out right now

By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor

I got a well-intended note from the Chicago Bears the other day.

It came via the ubiquitous Facebook, where I have more than 200 “friends,” an eclectic group that includes the Bears, Barack Obama and The X-Men.

The group also includes people I actually know.

Anyway, the Bears were trying to reassure me, and all their fans, that they were “pushing forward” despite the current labor “situation” and still working toward winning a Super Bowl for Chicago.

That’s all fine with me after seeing Chicago fall short against hated Green Bay in the NFC championship, but quite frankly, right now, I’m not losing too much sleep over the disagreement between the NFL owners and the players association that has resulted in a lockout.

First, it’s not really much of a lockout when nothing is going on.

While it may seem like football never ends — indeed, Arkansas, Arkansas State and college programs nationwide are currently going through spring practice — we are actually in a rare down period for the pros.

The NFL draft is still a month away and the mini camps are further off.

Colleges have been holding their pro days, in which scouts and NFL player personnel types visit campus to evaluate potential talent, but that’s about it.

Right now I’m more interested in what’s going on in the NCAA tournaments and the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues of spring training than I am the boardrooms and draft headquarters of the NFL.

Unfortunately, UALR’s men have already bowed out of the NCAAs.

There has been some debate the play-in round that increased the tournament field to 68 teams should even count as part of the “Big Dance,” but the Trojans did what they were supposed to, until falling in overtime to UNC-Asheville that is.

They won the Sun Belt Conference Tournament and got an at-large bid, so bully for UALR.

Meanwhile, UALR’s women are back in the national tournament for the second consecutive year, this time as conference champions after winning an at-large bid last year.

The women play Green Bay on Sunday. No, not the vile Packers, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, though if Chastity Reed is on her game I’d like the Trojans’ chances of beating the Packers too.

Then there is spring training, where hopes are high and everyone is still a winner and even the Cubs have yet to be mathematically eliminated.

In Arizona, the Los Angeles Angels, parent team of the Arkansas Travelers and home to Pine Bluff’s own Torii Hunter, are trying to piece together a lineup that will get them back to the playoffs after an injury-plagued down season last year.

It is hoped Angels’ top prospect Mike Trout will continue to develop, only not so quickly he doesn’t make his expected stop at Arkansas this season. It would be good for Trout and the Angels but a tragedy for Travs fans if Trout were to skip over Class AA and start with Class AAA Salt Lake instead.

Expect Trout to at least make a half-season appearance with Arkansas in 2011.

No, I’m not missing the NFL right now.

In fact, in a troubling sign for the league, I know people who are already making plans to do without it when fall actually rolls around.

At the recent high school state basketball finals in Hot Springs, a good friend and NFL fan — he has the DirecTV Sunday Ticket and everything — and I agreed we could get by just fine watching college football.

We also agreed that maybe the league deserves some of its current troubles.

Now that the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement has expired, players and owners are wrangling over an annual “profit pie” estimated at $9 billion. The details when such big amounts are kicked around get confusing, but in essence the owners’ proposals leave the players looking at an 18 percent decrease in pay.

Both sides have their issues, and they may be valid if kept in context. But it’s hard to feel pity while watching millionaires haggle with billionaires in this age of $76.47 average ticket prices (more than $2,000 for an average Super Bowl ticket).

If forced to choose, I’d probably side with the players, who literally get their brains beaten out for our viewing pleasure and have the shortest career expectancy of our major sports.

Sadly, those a work stoppage would hurt the most — beer vendors, concession workers and stadium cleanup crews — don’t have a voice in this.

But really, I don’t mind sitting this debate out entirely. Especially if the rumors I hear are true — Lingerie Football League broadcasts might replace the NFL on Sundays.