This is weird. It’s the same feeling, but completely different.

The NFL schedule came out Tuesday, revealing the matchups that could take place, depending on whether they work out that little labor dispute you may have heard about.

Every year, I look at the Green Bay Packers’ schedule and diagnose what their record should be for the season. This year I did none of that. Maybe that’s because the Packers won the Super Bowl and I don’t feel the urgency for redemption, but if I had to guess, I’d say it’s because I’ve given up hope for an NFL season actually happening next year.

I’ve been telling myself since January that I’m going to have to cope with no pro football this fall. If I look forward to the season by following the Combine, the schedule release and the draft, what am I going to do with myself come July when there’s no training camp? For the sake of damage control, I’ve ignored the Combine, changed the channel whenever Mel Kiper and Todd McShay come on to banter meaninglessly about prospects and generally tried to ignore my urges to scrounge for football news. I can’t care if I don’t want to end up depressed as I watch bowling on Sundays.

But Tuesday, I thought about it for the first time in a long time: what if there is football this season?

At first, throughout last season, I scoffed at the notion of a lockout. There was simply too much money to be lost, I told myself. Then, as the weather got colder and reality set in, I flipped the switch: no football, this season’s for all the marbles (and in case you forgot, the Packers won all the marbles). Leaving the season with a rare golden taste in my mouth allowed me to put the NFL to bed for a while. It’s like the greatest movie ever, and it ended just the way I wanted.

Now, as the weather’s getting warmer, I’m beginning to let optimism creep in. Getting a chance to open the season on a Thursday night against the Saints would be awesome. Sundays would again be joyous, I could mark the prime-time games on my calendar and anticipate experiencing the overwhelming joy of football again.

Labor talks, I don’t know if they’re progressing, but they’re happening. Judges, the NFLPA and the owners keep mandating that they happen. It seems there are thousands of people who care about the NFL as much as I do, and I don’t think the general public will stand for no football this fall.

Usually this is about the time I get back into football. Normally I’m spurned by an overtime playoff loss — the Packers have had three in the past eight years — and need a break from the gridiron, and can’t get back into the football scene until the draft day. It’s hard to get back into it when you’re anticipating nothing less than a disappointing ending. Well, this time around, we won it, and now the football world is ending.

But, isn’t it really not ending? Aren’t they gonna get this done before training camp? Isn’t the NFL too sacred of an American institution to compromise for a few (million) dollars? Owners are football fans who want to see action on Sundays, are they not? Don’t be silly, of course there will be football this year. There has to be. The draft’s still happening. Everyone will be excited for football again and when talks resume in May they’ll get a deal done. There’s no way they would let such a silly dispute stop the game, this isn’t fourth grade recess. It’s safe to get back into football.

Right?

Something put further doubt into my mind when it was revealed Thursday: the NFL is scheduled so that it could lose three weeks of the regular season.

Every game in Week 3 is between teams who share a bye week, meaning those games could be rescheduled. Additionally, if the season is on the fritz for three weeks, the first two weeks would be made up by sacrificing the weeks before and after the Super Bowl. Does this mean the NFL is anticipating no football for three weeks? Could they be using this as a bargaining ploy against the players union? The thought that comes to mind is “How evil? The NFL is plotting this.”

We’ll see.

I’m going to watch next week’s draft, and I’ll be hoping to see signs of life from the NFL community. Because there’s always supposed to be next year. Always.

It’s the same feeling, but it’s completely different.

Eliot Sill is a freshman in Media. He can be reached at [email protected]