While there finally might have been some positive signs in negotiations between NFL owners and players Thursday, it's hard to say exactly what the future will hold.
What we do know, though, is what the past brought. As such, we offer up the most devastating work stoppages in the four major U.S. pro sports in terms of how they impacted things on the field, court or ice -- along with any local tie-ins.
NFL
1982: A strike that lasted nearly two months caused the regular season to be shortened from 16 to nine games. The playoffs were seeded in a bizarre 1-8 format in both conferences, which gave your 5-4 Vikings the No. 4 seed in the NFC. They won their first-round game against Atlanta but were pasted by No. 1 seed and eventual Super Bowl champion Washington in the next round.
1987: Ah, the infamous replacement players. After another strike, the NFL brought in replacement players for three games of what ended up being a 15-game regular season. The "regular" Vikings were 8-4; the replacement Vikings were 0-3. Minnesota still managed a playoff berth, pulled upsets of New Orleans and San Francisco, but a 17-10 NFC title game loss to Washington (which again went on to win the Super Bowl), ended the magic and left some to wonder what a full season with its normal roster might have yielded.
MLB
1994-95: Sure, the 1981 strike was bad. But the trump card came a little more than a decade later with a strike that started in mid-August in 1994 and didn't end until early April of 1995. The 1994 World Series, of course, was wiped out. Tony Gwynn, who was hitting .394 at the time of the work stoppage, lost his bid for .400. Kirby Puckett had 112 RBI in only 108 games in 1994; he hit .314 with 99 RBI in 1995, a regular-season that was reduced by 18 games. What we didn't know at the time is it was Puckett's final season.
NBA
1998-99: A lockout shortened the regular season from 82 to 50 games. The enormous contract the Wolves gave Kevin Garnett is often cited as a prime reason for the labor meltdown; and the illegal contract with Joe Smith -- which along with having little money left over to sign other players after Garnett helped cripple the Wolves for years -- was consummated just after the lockout ended.
NHL
2004-05: A lockout that lasted nearly an entire calendar year wiped out the NHL season from start to finish. The Wild finished last in its division the year before and the year after the missed season, so it wouldn't be fair to say the lost year robbed the local squad of glory. But it sure didn't help to have a season washed away four years after the return of pro hockey in Minnesota.
MICHAEL RAND
