In the coming months football fans will hear a lot of crazy rumours about the state that the National Football League is currently in. Some will speak of lockouts and uncapped seasons, while others will say that there is absolutely nothing wrong. Unfortunately, the former is likely the truth.

Currently the NFL's collective bargaining agreement is set to expire in March 2011, and while this doesn't seem to be that close, the 2010 season is in danger as well. If an agreement isn't reached soon, the 2010 NFL season will be the first without a salary cap since 1994. This would mean teams would not be restricted in their spending, and could essentially “buy” themselves a Super Bowl. This will be a significant advantage to free spending teams (like the Cowboys and Redskins) but could be fatal to teams that are more frugal with their money (Bills, Jaguars). Also, if a deal isn't reached by the time the bargaining agreement expires, the 2011 season will likely be locked out.

So, what are the key negotiations taking place? Right now the fight is mostly over the league's revenues. The NFL Players Association (NFLPA) currently receives about 59 per cent of the NFL's revenues, and that belongs to the players in the form of salaries. The NFL owners would like that number to come down to about 41 per cent. That is a massive decrease, but they have their reasons. New stadiums are popping up all over the league, and where does the money come from? Another major expenditure that has arisen in recent years are the NFL games being held overseas.

Now, as you can probably assume, the Players Association doesn't want the 18 per cent decrease in the revenues they are receiving. That would likely result in lower player salaries, and more players having to take drastic pay cuts.

However, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell feels that salaries will continue to rise, even with the decrease in revenue handed to the players. In a quote taken from NFL.com, Goodell said: “You have to invest in these stadiums that we're in today. You need to find new ways of creating revenue, whether it's international or otherwise. And that takes investment. And we need to make sure that the owners have the capital to be able to do that. And then the pie grows, and everyone benefits.”

All of that confusion about revenues and salaries aside, you may be wondering what other issues are on the table. Here are a few:

- Changing the NFL regular season to 17 or 18 games instead of 16.

- Attendance issues in smaller markets like Jacksonville and Buffalo.

- The issue of concussions and how they could be prevented.

So, as you can see, the NFL owners and Players Associations will have a lot to talk about in the upcoming months. The annual NFL owner's meetings will be held sometime in March, and a lot of these issues will start to be resolved following that.

NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith feels that it is very likely there will be a lockout of the 2011 season, even going as far as to say it is a 14 out of 10 chance. Goodell disagrees, but the truth is, those two will be disagreeing on a lot in the upcoming months.

For the sake of all of us football fans, let's hope they get a deal done soon. The NFL has been very entertaining over the past few years, and I really hope that doesn't change any time soon.

So, my apologies for the ultra-intense and maybe even boring article this week. Next week, back to football, and I will take a look at the top 10 free agents available this offseason and discuss possible locations for them.

For more from the NFL Czar, check out his blog at jvzsblog.blogspot.com