There should have been a Hall of Fame game - Ingles

So, no collateral damage from the NFL lockout, right? This article was written by Scott Kendrick and appeared in The Florida Times-Union.

Folks in my hometown will beg to differ.

On Sunday night, there should have been the annual Hall of Fame game between the Bears and Rams at Fawcett Stadium in Canton, Ohio. On July 21, just as the owners and players were coming to terms on breaking their stalemate and ending the lockout, the NFL canceled the game.

Three weeks later, across the league, teams had intrasquad scrimmages with their full rosters on Saturday. Would it have killed the Bears and Rams to get on a plane to Canton? They could have, and should have, played the game.

I sold Cokes at the Hall of Fame game as a teenager and made enough to pay for my college books for a quarter. The NFL itself estimated that the Hall of Fame weekend brings $30 million of economic impact to Canton.

Fans from Chicago and St. Louis would have bought up ticket packages that included game tickets and enshrinement packages, to see Marshall Faulk and Richard Dent on Saturday and their favorite teams the next night. Instead, attendance was noticably down at the enshrinement ceremony, mostly the locals and the friends and families of the new Hall of Fame members.

So, while we’re happy there’s going to be a full NFL season, remember that the lockout still had its casualties. This article was written by Scott Kendrick and appeared in The Florida Times-Union.