So the rhetoric is heating up on both sides, after a month of build-up. All the reports indicate that the NFL is going to implode horribly next week, when the free-agency period starts on March 3rd without a sparkling-new collective bargaining agreement.

Except… For the little fact that football’s current CBA runs for two more seasons, right through to the 2008 entry draft.

True, both the league and the union want to supplant the final couple of years in this deal. The prospect of an uncapped year in 2007, along with various other factors, has implications that start his offseason. But it’s not a dire situation — the season’s going to start on time, this year and next. I’m getting tired of reports that miss this simple fact, and reflexively equate this situation with strikes and lockouts in other sports.