Following Super Bowl XLV, the thought of the NFL owners locking out the players for next season dawned on me.

What if there is no 2011 season? No preseason games? No regular season? No playoffs? Not even a meaningful pregame show? No Super Bowl?

If all 32 owners and the NFL Players Association do not come to terms on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement by March 4, expect a lockout. The old CBA that former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and then-executive director of the NFLPA Gene Upshaw extended in 2006 expires on that same day.

It will be a shame if the CBA isn’t extended before the deadline, especially for fans.

This could have been avoided from the very beginning, but representatives from both sides could never agree. The players want more money and better health care benefits after their careers are over, while the owners want to save money by cutting players’ salaries.

In 2008, owners voted unanimously to opt out of the CBA that was extended in 2006. By opting out, the 2008 and 2009 seasons were played under a salary cap, as it has been the past two decades and shortened the agreement by one year. Last season, the NFL played out without a salary cap for the first time since 1993.

So with three years to work out an agreement from both sides, many expected that the multi-billion dollar industry would be able to come to terms quickly. But it hasn’t, and fans will pay for it.

Now, the NFL’s lifeline rests in the hands of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, league owners and the NFLPA with less than a month to settle their disputes.

This week representatives from both sides met for what was supposed to be a two-day event to negotiate a new CBA, but still, not much progress was made. The meetings didn’t even last to the second day.

Owners want to extend the season to 18 games by cutting two preseason games and adding them to the regular season, while also setting up a wage scale for rookies drafted in the first round. It’s fair, the pay scale at least. Rookies are paid millions of dollars in guaranteed money despite being unproven. College players are entering the league with a bigger paycheck than their counterparts. Veteran wages are miniscule as compared to first-round picks, unless they’re a franchise player.

And then there comes the players. The game of football has changed. It’s faster, more violent, more dangerous and players are bigger and stronger than ever. Injuries are piling up as fast as Steven Strasburg’s 103 mph fastball.

In the Super Bowl alone, seven players missed time because of injuries and many others were left shaken up after ferocious hits. Star players Donald Driver and Charles Woodson spent most of the game in street clothes.

But dealing with injuries during a player’s career isn’t the main factor here. It’s when they’re retired, when the effects of their playing days really start to set in. The NFL pension plan needs a new framework, and the NFL needs to figure out whether it really wants to expand to 18 games despite the risks of injuries to its players.

If these problems aren’t addressed soon, the last NFL play that fans will remember is Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers taking a knee to seal the game. What a boring play to go out on.