The Kansas City Chiefs loss to the Baltimore Ravens has sunk in by now. The Chiefs aren't advancing in the NFL playoffs and their season is over.
Here's some more bad news: This may be the last time we see the Chiefs for a while.
No, I'm not talking about the normal eight month (eight!) offseason without games. I'm talking about the lack of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The league and the players have yet to come up with a solution that will allow football to be played in 2011. As of now, the CBA will expire in March and we will not have football in 2011.
We'll get into the odds and ends of the labor deal and why it may or may not get done soon enough but for now I take hope in everyone recognizing that the NFL is at the peak of its popularity. A lockout or work stoppage and everyone loses.
Some teams have used the uncertainty in the labor deal as a reason not to sign players to longterm extensions preferring to find out the details of the new labor deal before committing millions to a player. The Chiefs haven't used that as an excuse so far. They signed Derrick Johnson and Jamaal Charles to lucrative contract extensions in-season. So there's hope the Chiefs will continue to work leading up to the expiration of the CBA.
Hopefully this gets solved soon because I don't want the possibility of no football hanging over us all offseason. Unfortunately that appears to be where we're headed.