You wake up on a brisk Sunday morning in early October. The leaves have started to change from green to yellow, red and orange. You head outside with some friends and toss the pigskin around. Suddenly, you realize it’s almost noon. You run into your house and throw on the TV. You whip open your computer to make sure your fantasy lineups are set. Then it starts: Sunday PBA Bowling on ESPN. Added bonus, you got Pete Weber in for Walter Ray Williams Jr. just before the first ball was rolled.

No offense to bowling, but how many of you just cried a little bit inside? How many of you dreaded the thought of not seeing NFL Red Zone on Sunday afternoons? How many of you fear not having an excuse to sit inside all day watching television on a beautiful fall afternoon? There is no way I could be the only one.

This past Friday, the NFL Players Association officially decertified, ending talks between the NFL and the NFLPA on a new collective bargaining agreement. This forces the issues of collective bargaining to court rooms and officially sets a lockout on all players from the NFL.

The move of decertifying was made by the NFLPA in an effort to not allow NFL owners from creating a lockout on the regular season in 2011. By decertifying and ending the union the NFLPA had created, the players now have a right to file lawsuits to prevent a lockout of the 2011 NFL season. Not that I don’t enjoy a good courtroom drama (“12 Angry Men” is one of my all-time favorite movies), but a fall without the NFL is one of the saddest thoughts I have ever had to think of in sports.

Football is arguably the most popular sport in America. The revenue that comes in from tickets to television rights and memorabilia to commercials is staggering. This, at its core, is the reason a lockout may take place.

For those that don’t exactly understand, the NFL and NFLPA created a collective bargaining agreement in 1993, which was amended in 1998 and again in 2006. The collective bargaining agreement is a way for players and owners to reach agreements for working conditions in the NFL. The agreement works on everything, from player salary to plane tickets, meals and hotels on the road. Two years ago, NFL owners realized the extreme popularity and revenue the NFL had and they opted out of the collective bargaining agreement in hopes of making a better deal for themselves in the future.

Now, two years later, the Players Union and the NFL could not come to terms both sides could agree on, and a lockout has been issued for the first time in 24 years in the NFL. This makes the players no longer a union, but rather a trade association. Now that they decertified and are not part of a union, the original collective bargaining agreement that forbid players from filing an antitrust lawsuit is gone, and thus, the players have filed such a lawsuit claiming the owners have a monopoly over the NFL and the players are not treated as fairly.

Now this lawsuit goes to court and a couple different things can happen. The two main options are: The players win and an injunction will be placed that blocks NFL owners from locking out, or the injunction plea is denied and the owners lockout the 2011 regular season.

In a world full of greed, envy and pride (as well as lust, gluttony, sloth and wrath to make up all seven deadly sins), the recent fights between the players and the NFL give a grim reality that the NFL is first and foremost a business and getting richer may be more important to the already rich owners than having a season for the players and fans to enjoy.

While all hope is not lost for a season to occur in 2011, there is also a great risk that next fall you may be stuck at home watching Face the Nation on CBS, followed by PBA Bowling on ESPN, and rounding it all out with a three-hour block of Sanford and Son on TV Land every Sunday afternoon. Let’s hope an injunction is made so there is a reason to wake up on Sunday mornings and an excuse to make three pounds of your favorite taco dip when you hang out with family and friends all dressed in your team’s colors.

Tim Martens is a senior in LAS. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @timbmartens.