Good morning, Nashville. The prospect of a fall without the Titans is becoming more and more plausible as NFL owners continue to threaten a lockout next season. Last week, the union sent out a letter to players advising them to save their last three game paychecks in case next year’s football season never happens. The letter stated that the “internal” deadline for negotiations with the NFL had passed and the lockout is scheduled to begin on March 4th, 2011 if an agreement isn’t reached. If the season is indeed cancelled, Nashville is on track to lose $160 million in revenue and jobs.
- Belmont students fight back. The situation at Belmont continues to escalate with students and alumni planning a series of protests and letter-writing campaigns in response to the university’s alleged firing of Coach Lisa Howe because of her sexual orientation.
- Paint the town orange. Officials announced over the weekend that the Music City Bowl will feature the Tennessee Vols and North Carolina Tar Heels facing off at LP Field. The game takes place on December 30th, and we highly recommend you either find something very orange to wear that day or just don’t leave your house.
- Bits & pieces. Preds goalie Pekka Rinne is expected to miss 2-4 weeks due to another lower-body injury … Federal prosecutors want to keep the man accused of running a Somali sex traffic ring in prison until his trial … A pizza delivery man shot and killed the person who robbed him at gunpoint this weekend (and some of our enterprising Twitter followers made this helpful reenactment) … Tennessee health officials say that there are three predominant strains of the flu going around.
Photo by givingupthegun.