Oakland Raiders and Raider Nation: Keep the Faith, Joy Cometh in the Morning

Many articles say that some players are going to suffer financially because of the lockout. It's highly probable that some of the Oakland Raiders are going to have an economic struggle if this lockout lasts too long.

Everywhere I look I see the face of someone who has been laid off or paid off to retire early. Most of these people love to talk "football" in the office on their breaks.

In some ways, this lockout is like a move many school districts made last year. Folks were laid off for a while and then returned to work a few months later. Those kinds of moves make people uneasy, in some cases.

The NFL lockout has come at a time that there are serious economic struggles in America.

If I look one direction I see an engineer who was laid off in industry and now he tutors math students.

I look another direction I see another person who was laid off in mid-semester. He, too, loves NFL football.

Another person had a job restructured and she decided it is best to resign and to have integrity rather than to adhere to changes in policy. She, her husband and the children love to look at NFL football on a big screen. They love to debate with me about the Oakland Raiders and their favorite team, the Cleveland Browns.

Another person received his letter, stating that he is laid off, effective at the end of May. This man made straight A's in both his undergraduate and graduate degrees. He's under stress and he would be relieved if the 2011 season starts on time.

NFL football, and especially the games of the Oakland Raiders are a stress reliever for many people. If football does not start on time this year, a lot of people are going to struggle because already the impact of the failing economy has hit their lives like a big, angry defensive player.

The engineer, the teacher and the professor need football in 2011 to ease tensions and anxiety.

In fact, I am concerned that the momentum that was built up in 2010 might get loss in the shuffle while this lockout drags on and on.

Well, it's about time this lockout "passes over." The remembrance of the plagues are a constant reminder of the discomfort and agitation of the past few weeks in NFL franchises.

As the Passover gets started, may these troubled economic times and slow-moving mediations be resolved.

Somebody said something like this:

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning—when the media announces that the NFL lockout is over.

Hang in there, Oakland Raiders and Raider Nation.