I know I'm not (as I write this the day after the new labor agreement was signed). On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is an avid fan, I'd have to say that, for most of my life, I've been an 11. I've been on the wait list for Patriots season tickets for 15 years. I've subscribed to DirecTV's "NFL Sunday Ticket" ever since it started in 1994. In normal years, I listened to Sirius "NFL Radio" every morning and watched "NFL Total Access" every night.

Maybe the best thing the NFL could have done to get casual fans and people who don't watch football to talk about football was to take the game away from the millions of core fans who drive the sport.

I don't want to be the guy jumping the gun here -- but with the end of the NFL lockout in sight (final terms of the deal may be in place by the time this post runs), it's definitely time to start shifting one's attention to football season.

Tomorrow, July 13, is what I used to refer to as "Sports Void Day." It remains the only day on the U.S. sports calendar where one of our major sports does not have a live event for us to enjoy (and I say this with all due respect to the Women's World Cup, WNBA and Tour de France).

In today's evolving sports marketing landscape, agencies are having more frequent conversations with brands regarding the "optimization" of their sponsorship and event portfolios. The upswing in discussion makes sense, as brands have been in a downsize mode or a holding pattern in recent years, specifically in regards to new sponsorships and renewals. With the economy slowly improving, many brands that had been distancing themselves from investing in sponsorships are again looking, or are at least preparing to make sponsorship an integral part of their marketing mix. And while not all brands responded to negative public portrayals of sponsorship by …

This year, "Lombardi," a capsulated version of the life of Hall of Fame NFL coach Vince Lombardi, managed to do what few sports-themed plays have done: Have a successful run on Broadway. "Lombardi" ran from Oct. 21, 2010 though May 22, 2011, drawing praise, awards and a bevy celebs and athletes to its performances.

What is missing is more focus on this impressionable young female audience by the male dominated NFL, MLB and NBA to turn these little girls into big time sports fans -- and at the same time figure out how to make today's women and moms into bigger fans as well. Ultimately, there's a whole new audience for the marketers and media outlets of these sports to reach with big time financial upside to be had. Here's how to go about it.

If all you are after is impressions, without regard for their impact, then by all means, count eyeballs and be done with it. But as the vision of society that George Orwell depicted in 1984 is now here, albeit 27 years later than predicted, I'm convinced that most sports marketers need to go beyond that. When you do, you might actually be happy with what you learn.

At the ESPN Upfront on May 17, intended to lure new advertisers to and have current marketing partners expand around the network's upcoming schedule, a packed house at the Best Buy Theater in New York was witness to some of both.

The sound bite coming out of ESPN's coverage of the first round of this year's NFL Draft seemed to make sense. Ratings for ESPN's prime time TV draft coverage fell 17% from last year's event. Chalk it up to the damper that the NFL Lockout has had on creating interest in the Draft, right?