Football is back!

Finally, after months of uncertainty, the NFL season is back.

The lockout, which had threatened to derail the 2011 season, was nothing short of a roller coaster ride of tense negotiations between team owners and players.

With many fans unsure if we would get a season at all, the recent news from NFL.com that a new CBA or Collective Bargaining Agreement has been agreed by both players and NFL owners has no doubt left many, including myself, elated.

Since the previous agreement expired back in March, both sides have spent months negotiating a way to bring an end to the lockout. The disagreement, which was essentially down to a dispute of how to split the sport’s multi-billion dollar fortune, was seemingly drawing to a close on Friday – with the owners agreeing to the latest CBA.

Unfortunately, however, the players took a little longer to agree to the terms, resulting in the cancellation of the Hall of Fame game between the Chicago Bears and St. Louis Rams scheduled for the 7th August. I guess on the upside for the Rams this wasn’t necessarily bad news considering the Bears have never lost a Hall of Fame game, but football is football!

Now, as we look ahead to what could be one of the most chaotic weeks in American football history, we will finally be able to answer so many of the questions that fans have had during the off-season. The end of this week will definitely be an eventful one. Free Agency opens up on Friday, resulting in what will be a bitter scrap for the league’s top players – including Pro Bowl corner Nnamdi Asomugha and veteran Super Bowl-winning WR Santonio Holmes.

With such little time to prepare, it could well alter many experts’ predictions of division winners and play-off bound teams. It will be interesting to see in Week 1 who will have a post lockout hangover.

But, more importantly, the good news is that we won’t have to go through another lockout again for a long time – after the latest CBA was signed as a 10-year deal with no room for negotiations.

For now, I’m delighted to say it’s ‘Game time’ again!