Assistant coaches and lower personnel people may lose their jobs over this.

Businesses across America may suffer greatly.

Lives may be affected.

The NFL lockout is more than just millionaires fighting with billionaires over revenue. If there’s no season next year, consider how much money hotels, restaurants and shops will lose when teams and tourists don’t come to town for 17-plus weeks throughout the fall and winter. We’re already in the middle of an economic struggle, why must everyone suffer more?

Look, I get it. I know the NFL is a business, too. In fact, I know that it’s a business first and a game second. I wish it weren’t, but that’s just reality. The owners are running a business and they want to make as much profit as possible. In that regard, I don’t think they should have to open their financial books to the players. Hey, it’s their business, right? That said, how can the owners ask the players to take a paycut when they’re not willing to provide intricate details as to why?

But the bigger picture has obviously been lost here. If you don’t think the NFL has an big impact on people, think again. I’ve got a friend who served this fine country overseas and last April he woke up in the middle of the night just to watch the first round of the NFL draft. Think about that for a second: the NFL draft, not the Super Bowl, the playoffs or even an important regular season game, provided a brief distraction for a man, a soldier, half a world away fighting in a war. That’s how much the NFL can affect someone.

As it stands now, nobody will have the opportunity to enjoy the draft, or free agency, or possibly even the season because grown men can’t compromise. How ridiculous. How absurd. How unnecessary.

If I knew we had it in us, I would love to see every fan boycott the NFL if this lockout lasted until September. I would love to hit the owners’ wallet hard and for the players to actually feel the impact of what’s going on here. But that won’t happen. We love our football and we’ll be back once these greedy SOBs come to an agreement. It’s sad, but it’s also reality.

So we wait on you, owners and players. We wait on you to figure out the best way to divvy up our money. Shame on you. Shame on you for not understanding what kind of effect you have on us.