Football Is "Back?" What Did I Miss?

After 4 1/2 months of exhaustive coverage by every sports media outlet in the free world, the NFL lockout is over and football is "back."

Just another evening at the Goodell residence.

Back from what? Did I miss something? Aside from some minicamps and the preseason farce known as the Hall of Fame Game, is there anything that was really missed?

• The draft was held, business as usual, earlier this spring.
• Training camp is starting on time.
• Each team will still play (and collect ticket holders' money for) 4 worthless preseason games.
• The regular season will kick off as originally scheduled in September.
• The circle of life continues

The only thing I've missed this offseason is the respite from the Chris Mortensens, Adam Schefters, John Claytons, etc. that I normally get to enjoy during the slow months between the draft and training camp.

Everybody who is writing, texting and tweeting how happy they are for the lockout to be over today has been duped. Once it became apparent that too much money was at stake, there was no way the 2011 season wasn't going to be played in its full entirety. All of the sports media rank and file that's falling over themselves to herald the triumphant return of the NFL are forgetting that it was never gone in the first place.

Speaking of things that were never really "gone," welcome back Alex Smith.

And now, on to training camp...