Finally, something good comes out of the NFL lockout

With discussions heating up about a potential end to the NFL lockout (which went into effect on March 12) between the NFL Players Union and NFL Team Owners, there has been some optimism that the lockout will end sooner than later.

Pope was much more than just a football player this past weekend.

But regardless of whether or not the lockout culminates in the near future, ultimately nothing good has arisen from the now 91-day-hiatus. 

The lockout has caused some serious skepticism about whether or not there will be an NFL season this year.

The lockout has caused many people, myself included, to become disgusted with the selfishness of those preventing the NFL lockout from ending.

And, the lockout is also partially to blame for the arrests and legal troubles of a countless number of NFL players, an issue Bri and I discussed frequently on "The Rant" a month or so ago at the University of Rochester. Just to give you some perspective about what I mean, take this into consideration: through the first 42 days of the lockout, 13 different players had been arrested.

Do the math: 42 days divided by 13 different players = For the first 42 days of the lockout, there was 1 player arrested every 3.23 days.

If there wasn't a lockout in effect, players would have been training at NFL facilities (the NFL lockout bars players from using team practice arenas), which in turn may have prevented some of the players from being incarcerated since they wouldn't have been wherever they were when they were arrested.

But as of today, I can finally say that this lockout is the reason for something good happening.

Thanks to the NFL lockout, a six-year-old is living today.

Earlier this afternoon, ESPN.com reported that Kansas City Chiefs tight end Leonard Pope saved the life of a six-year-old boy who was drowning in a swimming pool this past weekend.

Apparently, Pope was inside one of his close friend's house in Americus, Georgia when he heard commotion outside by the pool.

"I was coming out of the house, I heard [six-year-old Bryson Moore's mother Anne] cry. She was like 'get, get him, he's drowning!' I couldn't see Bryson. All I could see was [Bryson's] fingertips at the top of the water and I couldn't see his head," Pope said in the ESPN.com article that reported this story.

Pope reacted upon seeing Bryson completely under the water. Fully clothed and with his cell phone, wallet, and all of his other belongings in his pockets, Pope jumped into the water and managed to save Bryson.

If the NFL lockout had been over at the time of this near drowning incident, Pope wouldn't have been present to save Bryson-- he would have almost definitely been at training camp in Kansas City.

"The fact that he is normally at camp and could have been in Kansas City just proved to me that he was placed here to save my son from drowning, and I thank God that he was here," Anne Moore told the Americus Times Recorder. 

Finally, something good, make that very, very, very, good, came out of this NFL lockout.

And after learning about this story, I'm not so angry about the lockout anymore.

In fact, I am thankful for it.