The NFL lockout continues on, but we have had our first official cancellation because of it. It was announced on Tuesday that the league has cancelled the rookie symposium that was originally to take place on June 26 in Canton, Ohio. In this symposium, the recently drafted players would normally go and learn about money and life management and would also meet present and past players.
League spokesman Greg Aiello stated, "We had gotten to the point based on the uncertainty we have in labor right now that we needed to be fair to those who would be asked to come and participate and help us put it on."
The reasoning is that "the symposium is a large, complex event involving many professionals and others'' and it would have been unfair to everyone involved to keep things on hold.
Besides the whole issue of these newly drafted players not being able to get some good presentations telling them ways to be responsible and not blow through their money too quickly, this cancellation is the first of what could be many black eyes for the NFL. By starting the cancellations, the door has been opened to cancel things like training camp, the preseason and eventually regular season games.
That's not a door that any of us wants to really open. We now have opened the door and have seen the ugly that is there. Let's just shut it up and learn that nothing good comes from behind it. How will we do that? We can't. It will take a new agreement that the owners and players can live with.