Are you ready for some football?

I still cry myself to sleep because college and pro football is still months away. The world isn't entirely cruel though, because we are appeased with spring practice and the draft, then training camps.

All the professional stuff was in jeopardy due to the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Basically, the world of professional football -- the sponsors, the owners of the teams, the players -- all have an idea of how much money the game will generate over the next few years based on previous trends. And then everyone tries to get a piece of it. The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is between the owners and the players and dictates, among many other things, how much each team can spend on salaries for players.

The players, represented by the NFLPA, try to negotiate that the salary cap should be high so each team has lots of money to give to the players. The owners, of course, want it as low as possible. Late yesterday, the owners and the players agreed to the new CBA that will be in effect for the next six years. It raises next years salary cap to $104 million per team.

This news is a great time to get into the quintessential discussion of, "why do the players make so much money?" I always have people who are not football fans make this their first complaint (or second, right after "it's so violent"). Well, this clearly sheds some light on the system. If television companies are willing to pay billions of dollars for the rights to show the games, and if owners are making hundreds of millions in revenues from cities and stadiums, then shouldn't the players who are actually providing the entertainment take a large chunk of the pie?

If it wasn't for their desire and love for studying their assignments all week long, and going out there and getting hit (or making the hits) then there would be no football.

I'm proud of the role my Cowboys played in the new CBA. And now...I'm even more ready for some football!