The tale of the 2010 NFL season has not been one of successes or feel-good stories. The narrative of the year has little to do with the resurgence of the Jets, future Hall of Fame inductee LaDainian Tomlinson or the success of the Steelers without Ben Roethlisberger. The story has instead been the inconsistency of teams everyone thought would be better, and off-the-field issues like the Brett Favre cell phone fiasco.

One issue seemingly lost in the shuffle is that while one team will be crowned the Super Bowl champion at the season’s end, the fans of the other 31 teams can’t say “well, there’s always next year,” because there may not be. The NFL Players Association and the NFL’s owners are at odds and a lockout is looming. NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith has said a lockout in March is likely.

Of course, the knee-jerk reaction from fans in sports labor disputes is always to blame the players for their greed. Yes, the players earn millions of dollars every year playing a game that many fans would play for peanuts. But nobody blames a man for asking for a raise if he does good work whether they are earning $50,000 or $5 million.

The players have every right to pursue every dollar they can while they have the opportunity to do so. They put their bodies on the line day in and day out, and an NFL career can end in the blink of an eye. In fact, the average NFL career lasts just over two seasons. Some of the players who lasted longer than two years suffer lingering effects of injuries from hits they took during their careers and must suffer through an array of health problems for the rest of their lives.

This one won’t be on the players; the owners will be to blame. NFL owners pulled out of the current collective bargaining agreement because they thought the players were earning too much, especially in these hard economic times.

Then, selfishly, the owners, who don’t have to put their bodies on the line, proposed extending the NFL season to 18 games as their employees continue to go down with concussions, torn ligaments and broken bones during a current 16-game season. It is difficult to see how careers wouldn’t be shortened or how the quality of the game wouldn’t be watered down by two more games.

The future doesn’t look so bright either. Young players trying to make the already-difficult transition from college to the pros will not be ready to go from the 12 to 14 game collegiate season to 18 games.

There has not been any great outcry from fans to expand the season. Sure, everybody loves football, but the season is fine how it is. If there is not a 2011 season, two extra games a year will not make it up to fans. It might not come to that, but owners are putting fans and players alike at risk. So despite the lack of feel-good stories this season, fans should enjoy the year while they can. After all, there may not be a next year.