SEC Fans Aren't Losing Sleep Over the NFL Strike

While much of the country nears panic stage over the impending doom that is the loss of the 2011 NFL season, folk down south barely take notice.

Why?  Who needs the NFL when you've got SEC football!  

The NFL may choose not to play this season, but we all know they will be back eventually.  The big financial carrot will continue to draw top talent from around the nation to play in the strongest college football conference in America.  

I was once a big NFL fan myself.  Even without a team in my state, I still have some amazing memories of the league.

I remember watching Monday Night Football with my dad when Tony Dorsett pulled off a jaw dropping 99-yard run from scrimmage. 

I'll never forget the chaos of watching Joe Montana and Dan Marino duke it out with 100 guys, in heaps around a banged up old TV getting signals "from the air".  Kids today would consider that scene positively medieval.

There were more esoteric moments as well—like when the Steelers dressed an aging and injured Jack Lambert, knowing he had no chance of playing, just because his seething anger would effect the teams attitude.  

As the camera panned past Lambert's face, I wondered if his few remaining molars could take the pressure as he gritted his teeth not being able to play.

That was a long time ago, though, and the league isn't what it used to be.  One of many examples is the career of Ottis Anderson.

Some may remember Anderson as a top running back for the St, Louis Cardinals.  He was the NFL rookie of the year in 1979 and for six seasons topped a thousand yards rushing.  Like many players, injuries mounted over time, his effectiveness waned and he gave way to younger players.

This story sounds familiar; but unlike today, the story doesn't end there.    

After being traded to the New York Giants In his 11th season, Anderson rushed for 1023 yards and 14 touchdowns.  The following season he was dominant.  The Giants made it to the Super Bowl, where he became the MVP rushing for 102 yards and a touchdown as the Giants won a close game over the Bills.  

In today's NFL, Anderson would have been long retired because the last CBA agreement provided a salary scale for veteran players.   No longer was pay tied directly to performance—players wanted more pay just for being there longer.

That rule made it cheaper to chunk a veteran player in favor of a rookie, even if the veteran was much better.  The Ottis Andersons of the world were thrown out and replaced with a player who received the job by default.

A huge negative consequence of all that is an almost total lack of player development. It used to be a player was considered a good draft pick if he became a starter by year four.  Today?  If he's not a starter by year two, he's probably done. 

How many Kurt Warners were assigned to the junk heap before they even had a chance?  

Together with wildly expanding salaries and massive guaranteed contracts, the league went from America's game to a league full of spoiled children—barely old enough to shave—who haven't lived long enough to have perspective.

Thankfully, for those of us lucky enough to live in God's country (a.k.a. South Eastern United States), we have something much better—Southeastern Conference Football.

The average southern tussle on a sunny Saturday afternoon in the SEC likely has more future first-round draft choices than many Super Bowl matchups.

Instead of having the regional picks crammed down our throat by the NFL and networks, SEC fans will see most significant games on TV.  I don't want to see the Atlanta Falcons every week just because I live in Alabama.  

Though some players will eventually find wealth in the NFL, most college players are still "normal" people who haven't been corrupted by mountains of cash.  

SEC players still have to answer to their coaches.  The NFL has become a league where the tail often wags the dog.  Not satisfied with dictating to their coach they are now wanting to dictate to the owners.  

Many college players know they are lucky to have made it this far and are playing in the biggest games of their lives every week.  Their "live today" attitude is often infections to their teammates and the fans as well.  Many of my favorite players never had a chance of making it to the NFL.  

With no playoff system in place, every game is like a playoff game.  Even a single loss could sink a national title season.

If the National Title game is out of the question, getting to the SEC title game in Atlanta is almost as big.  For southerners, the SEC title may be bigger anyway.

The SEC is so dominant, in fact, that the National Title game has become a perk to winning the SEC title.

SEC fans never have to worry about player strikes and teams moving away.    

And the rivalries.  

Professional teams give lip service to rivalries, but with players constantly moving around, it's impossible to have the sort of continuity necessary for a rivalry.

Most southern boys stood in front of the television with clenched fists when they were 12 years old, watching one of the bitter southern rivalries.  Later, when they suited up and looked across to see the hated enemy, all those years flooded their mind and their heart.  They were about to be part of history.

You can't buy that sort of thing with money—only the Super Bowl itself carries that's sort of air.  An SEC player could play in eight to 10 such games in a career. 

College rivalries are so huge that if a player makes the winning play, he will likely be immortalized in art renderings and forever decorate the walls of man caves and Barb Q joints everywhere.

Just how intense are these rivalries?  They take on a life of their own.   

Take, for example, the recent story where a crazed Alabama fan poisoned Auburn's famous Oaks of Toomer's Corner. This is just one of many stories that marks SEC rivalry over the decades.

There aren't many things Alabama and Auburn fans can agree on.  Two they likely do agree on, though, are (1) that the tree murderer needs a psychiatrist, and (2) few will be losing sleep over the NFL strike down South.

I sincerely hope the NFL does get it all worked out.  The Super Bowl is still a great time to watch commercials, and—of course—we all want to see "our boys" dominate at the next level.  That too becomes part of the rivalries that we live and breath to down South.