So much for the weekend; NFL Lockout meetings pushed back to Monday

Hence another example why optimistic rumors from this insane NFL Lockout should be taken with a grain of salt.

For the past week, the NFL spewed out information that the owners and players were very close to putting an end to the lockout and that discussions would continue through the entire weekend.

Well, late Friday word comes out that the discussions have become "frustrating" as "little to no progress has been made on the core issues," according to NFL.com. That means that the players still feel they are being cheated out by the owners when it comes to revenue, and that there are still owners who feel they aren't making enough money.

Now what appeared to be the end of the lockout will continue deep into next week, most likely, with talks now set to resume Monday morning.

Most of the owners have enforced a strict July 15 deadline to get a deal done. If a new CBA is not reached, then summer training camp and pre-season football will likely be canceled.

The NFL is now in total panic mode as they try to find common ground, but after four months of constant arguing over $9 billion, it would be stunning to say the least if both sides suddenly come to an agreement and save the summer.

If the summer schedule is lost, it will cost the league $1 billion in revenue, and both sides would have to start over again in negotiations if they want to save the regular season.

This is a total fiasco. It appears more and more likely that we are destined to have a fall without NFL football for the first time since 1982 when the league played only nine games that year. In 1987, the NFL used replacement players for a few weeks.

However a total wipe out of the NFL schedule from week 1 of pre-season to the Super Bowl would be unprecedented. The NFL has never had a year where they didn't have a season, and in a time when the league is more popular than ever...canceling the season would prove costly, and I don't mean just financially.

The NHL has never recovered from their lockout in 2004-2005. Hockey was the least popular sport to begin with before their lockout, now people don't even pay attention to it.

It took 10 years for the NBA to recover from their lockout in 1999, and now they are under lock down again.

Major League Baseball never truly recovered from the 1994 lockout that canceled the second half of the season. MLB was America's National Pastime, and since 1994, the NFL has replaced it as number one in American culture. Baseball used the steroid era to catapult it's way back into America's sub-consciousness.

If the NFL is willing to risk their popularity in this country, they will regret for years to come. With this lockout, and the ever present reality of Personal Seat Licenses, fans will stop coming to football games. Maybe then the owners and players will finally get it -- nobody wanted this lockout in the first place, except them.