The Sunday Five: NFL Going Out of Business?

"The Sunday Five" is a loosely-titled piece where I talk about five NFL- or Browns-related topics related to this past week. In today's late-night edition, I take a look at the results of a few polls we ran this past week and a report from Pro Football Talk about the current labor situation.

What is a "Complete Shutdown of the NFL?" If you didn't hear, this rumor was brought up by PFT's Mike Florio based on rumblings he claims to have heard:

We’re hearing initial rumblings pointing to the possibility that a loss by the league at the appellate level will prompt the owners to completely shut down all business operations until the players agree to a new labor deal.  The thinking is that, if the owners cease all operations, the NFL would not be violating the court order because there would be no lockout.  Instead, the league essentially would be going out of business — something for which the NFL repeatedly chided the union in the weeks and months preceding decertification of the NFLPA.

Fans around the league seem to be fumed about this possibility, but I don't quite understand what different ramifications would come into play if the league went this route. Feel free to chime in if you have an idea.

Mary Kay Cabot of the Plain Dealer had an interview in Sunday's paper with Greg Little's receiving coach from college. It was a good read, so be sure to check it out. Having been out of football for over a year, Little is the type of guy who you imagine would be even more so affected by the lockout situation. While other guys might be closer to game speed, who knows where Little will be -- it'll be a wait-and-see type of deal.

Here are the results from the first of three polls we recently ran: in a blunt question of would it have been better for the Browns to go with Da'Quan Bowers or Jabaal Sheard with the No. 37 overall pick, 72% of respondents went with Sheard. In the end, I think both players are going to end up with equally sound players. The benefit of Sheard was consistency, and the risk with Bowers was his injury. When you weigh both of those factors together, the positions they were selected at seems about right.

We kicked off our free agent coverage this past week, which should not have been the case since free agency usually happens in March. Anyway, the results were not favorable for RB Mike Bell, as 93% of respondents indicated they do not think the Browns should attempt to re-sign him. There was really no surprise there, and I wonder what reasons the other 6-7% had for voting to retain Bell. Was my brief Devil's Advocate section really that convincing?

Although voting is still going on, the early results are much better for FB Lawrence Vickers, who has 87% of respondents saying the Browns should retain him next season despite just having drafted a fullback, Owen Marecic, in the fourth round of the draft. Could the value we place in Vickers be a little overrated at times? Perhaps. I want Vickers to stay, but the writing on the wall (no tender offer, a fourth-round FB, the change to the WCO) don't look promising for his future in Cleveland. Hopefully Baltimore doesn't sign him if they lose Le'Ron McClain.