2011 Lockout “Season” Will Be Better For New Orleans Saints Then Others

It’s a crisp summer morning, and the sun hasn’t come up high enough to begin it’s torching of the city.  It’s completely empty in the streetcar, save for a few late-night party-goers who are now making the return trip as zombies.  As we approached the Louisiana intersection, I recognize the unmistakable tones of a tenor saxafone.

I go against every instinct I have (or all the signs lining the windows), and I lean outside of the car, risking limb and face to get a peak at the street musician.  He’s an older black man, perhaps 50 or so, and he’s wearing a white reggie bush jersey, serenading all the early morning drivers with a soft, slow jazz tune, while not hasseling them for money.

As I watched longer, I noticed not a single person seemed at all startled or surprised by this spectacle (well, no one except for my estranged fellow passengers on the street car).  With the sounds of the sax fading into brightening morning sun, I sat back onto one the many wooden benches, engaging in what has now become more of an addiction than a habbit; I needed to somehow relate this with my sports writing.

All I could think about for the rest of the ride to work, however, was that I really don’t think I’d want to be anywhere else in the country if the lockout ended up wiping out the entire 2011 season.

New Orleans has an amazing and unique atmosphere, great weather throughout the NFL season, and a fan base that will support the Saints even if they aren’t playing.

My next question to myself was “what NFL cities would I least like to be in during a season lockout?”

Note: I have not visited most, if not all of the five cities that are about to be listed below.  This is not a post about hating on any cities, in fact, it is more about cities that would suffer most if there wasn’t a season.

5.  Green Bay Packers:

Just to get this out of the way, YES!  I KNOW THEY JUST WON THE FREAKING SUPERBOWL!!!!!!  Whew, I’m glad we could all clear that one up so I can continue with what I’m actually writting about.

Greenbay is number 5 on my list because they are the current world champs.  Right now, they have an extremely high potential to repeat solely because Aaron Rodgers is coming into his own as an elite quarterback.  The main problem is that all the time wasted not practicing allows this team to become less coordinated with each other.

Another problem is that Green Bay is very far up North, and recieves a lot of cold and snow during its winters, but the people are able to bear it as long as they can still watch football.  It is for this simple reason that very few of the players actually live in the Green Bay area, making it much harder to practice on their own time.

4.  Carolina Panthers

I will just start by saying that I am not a huge fan of Charlotte.  I have a bunch of relatives who live there and, honest to God, I sometimes feel that even they can’t stand living there; however, I am 100% positive that there are tons of very interesting things to do there that I just don’t know about, and am willing to hear out anyone who wants to tell me I’m wrong.

That is not the reason why the Panthers are number 4 on this list.  The real problem with the Panthers getting locked out this season is that their number 1 draft pick, Cam Newton, will go a whole year and a half without getting any real NFL experience.  It will only force him to lose a lot of his football conditioning, no matter how much he works out over the summer, and that’s for a guy who is an untested pro-talent.