With the NFL lockout approaching, another interesting thing that might happen according to Pro Football Talk is that official team websites will be "locked out" to an extent. What exactly does that mean?
One team, per Marvez, expects to pull all player photos. Another team expects to lose the ability to talk to players. Incoming rookies likely remain fair game, until the draft. Once the players are picked, they enter the union and consequently the pool of persons to whom the NFL teams won’t be permitted to speak. The end result? Traffic to team websites will plummet. As will any revenue streams generated by those websites.
Some official team websites are operated better than others, but it'll be interesting to see if this has any impact. Even if the official sites did not lose access though, what would their really be for them to report on? Official sites usually seem to have immediate access to draft prospects though, so maybe that will end up opening the door for more fan-oriented blogs to score some exclusive interviews.