Welcome to the NFL's first work stoppage since 1987.

The NFL followed the player union's decertification Friday afternoon by locking out the players at 11 p.m. Friday. So now the $9 billion business has come to a halt.

The blame game is in full effect between the two sides as the case now is in the court system. The players are seeking an injunction to block the lockout, and it could take a month for a ruling, according to this Associated Press story.

Players are barred from their team's facilities and can have no contact with their coaches or other team employees during the lockout. We'll have more on the lockout from the Vikings perspective online later today but we had a chance to talk to a few players the past few weeks about the possibilities of this lockout happening.

"Nobody wants to be locked out, nobody wants to have a work stoppage," linebacker Ben Leber said. "We continue to just say that we want to be playing and we want to negotiate, but sometimes it doesn't seem like the owners are willing to do that." The union instructed players to save money in the event of a lockout, but Leber noted that players likely won't feel the "pressure" until they start missing game checks in September. Like everyone else, punter Chris Kluwe hopes it doesn't get that far. "Both sides would really have to let their egos get in the way for us to get to the point where we're wiping out games," Kluwe said. "You look at baseball, you look at hockey. They took years to recover [from their work stoppages] and some would say baseball and hockey still haven't recovered. Football is so much bigger than those two combined, I would say. It's pretty much the national pastime and to start wiping out games like that, that would really dramatically affect the sport for years to come I think. Hopefully, it doesn't get to that point." Said defensive end Brian Robison: "The ones you really have to feel bad for are the fans because they're the ones that make this game. You want to get a deal done mainly for them. Obviously you want to get it done for different reasons. As far as the players side, to get things right for you. The owners want to get things right for them. Find a common ground for both sides and both sides can be happy. But you feel bad for the fans because really and truly they're the ones that make this game."