The NFL Lockout Is Over, And It Is A Glorious New Day

After the slow agony of the NFL lockout, filled to the brim with an endless stream of invective, incredibly slow negotiations and the occasional player-organized workout, we have reached the end.

We are at the promised land, a veritable Valhalla where a collective bargaining agreement is complete and there's no damn opt-out clause for ten years. My friends, we have football!

After all this time, I'm damn glad to be able to stand up and say that. It was interminable, yes, but we miraculously got a deal without killing the pre-season or any regular season games. Hell, we even have an abbreviated off-season, complete with free agency. There were times when that was far from a foregone conclusion.

With that mess out of the way, I'm hopeful we can return to normalcy. It's time to obsess over free agency, argue over rookie impacts and stare at tentative depth charts until our eyes fall out. That's what every self-respecting Falcons fan has been waiting months to do.

Let's not wait any longer. It's a day of celebration!