The Pro Football Hall Of Fame Is Blissfully Ignorant Of The NFL Lockout

Next month’s Hall of Fame Game will go off as planned despite the ongoing NFL lockout, or so thinks HOF president Steve Perry.

“We’re making all the plans to have the game on time. We’ve heard from both parties — the owners and the players — and they’ve expressed their desire to have the game. So, that’s our plan,” Perry told ESPN’s Sal Paolantonio.

The HOF Game is traditionally the first game of the NFL preseason. This year it will supposedly feature the Bears against the Rams at Fawcett Stadium in Canton, Ohio.

Seeing as how he NFL is closed for business right now, it seems unlikely that the teams will be ready by the scheduled August 7 date.

So either Perry and the HOF know something we don’t, or they are in denial over the lockout.

“We’re planning to have the game. Nobody has told us otherwise. In fact, both sides have told us they want to play the game,” Perry added.

But in reality, the players and owners are going to have to make some serious strides to even make the league operational by August 7.

Perry and the HOF are leery of postponing the game because the August 5-7 weekend is when Hall of Fame inductions will take place, regardless of whether the game is played. If the game has to be moved, the HOF lose the out-of-towners who come to the game as part of induction ceremony weekend, and they will have trouble selling tickets.

So far the game has sold only half of its 22,000 available tickets, according to ESPN.

Source: ESPN

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