The NFL Season is in Full Swing, the NBA Season Will Miss at Least the First 2 Weeks

Week 5 is over in the NFL, and the results thus far are not going the way ESPN would like. The Indianapolis Colts are without the injured Peyton Manning and are off to an incredibly awful 0-5 start, alongside the much-hyped St. Louis Rams and the increasingly worse Miami Dolphins. The Philadelphia Eagles, once hyped as being the Miami Heat of the NFL, are off to a 1-4 start, the Dallas Cowboys are 2-2 after bipolar performances against the 49ers and Lions. Speaking of the Lions, they're 5-0 for the first time since 1956, sharing an unbeaten record with the 5-0 reigning Super Bowl champions, the Green Bay Packers. The two current league leaders will meet on Thanksgiving for the quite possibly the biggest game in Detroit Lions history.

Outside of the two unbeaten teams, there are several 4-1 teams: New Orleans, San Francisco, Buffalo, New England, and San Diego. Wait, wait wait. The San Francisco 49ers and Buffalo Bills started 4-1? Yes, it's true. The 49ers and Bills are two of the better teams in the league thus far, steamrolling their competition. The Saints have had a very easy schedule thus far, not impressing anyone along the way. The Patriots have also had a very easy schedule, although their one loss comes against the Bills. The Chargers, while not surprising as a league leader, are 4-1 for the first time under coach Norv Turner.

Next week, the biggest game of the season thus far will happen on an early game, the 49ers visiting the Lions in what should prove to be the only game of the season the 49ers look to be capable of losing, with 5 remaining games against NFC West opponents and 5 games against the unimpressive Steelers, Ravens, Redskins, Giants, and Browns. I'm not normally one to make bold predictions, but it is entirely possible the 49ers could finish with a 14-2 record at the rate they're playing.... or better if they defeat the Lions. If the 49ers do defeat the Lions, expect Super Bowl talk to be thrown around as many have already crowned the Lions the biggest threat to the Packers in the NFC.

The first 2 weeks of the NBA season have officially been cancelled. Although there is still some glimmer of hope for a delayed 82 game season, the odds of the season happening at all are grim at this point. the players and owners are very far apart from reaching a deal and it looks like they will not reach a deal this season as the players' association has been saying for quite some time now that the players have been stockpiling money in case a lockout did happen.

Whatever ends up happening, the lockout will be very bad not just for the loss of games, but the loss in TV time and possibly increased viewership of hockey.The NBA and NHL play concurrently, so if just the right fanbases ditch basketball to watch hockey, we could be on to the disastrous results that happened to the NBA on NBC after the 1999 lockout. Hopefully ABC decides to abandon the rights to NBA games, because I really hope CBS or NBC gets the rights so that I can either get my Bob Costas or Marv Albert fixes. I really don't know why ESPN thinks Mike Breen is a good basketball commentator, because he's not. Mark Jackson thankfully will be coaching, so I won't have to hear "Mama there goes that man" ever again. Although I would have liked to see Jeff Van Gundy coaching again, he is an excellent color commentator, so there are always at least some positives in ESPN keeping the rights, besides games being broadcast on ESPN 3D.