It's Tuesday and it's snowing...wait a minute, it's February in Cincinnati, why is this a shock to anyone?

This may have been the last Super Bowl you’ll be able to enjoy for awhile. There will be at least one more, after this upcoming season. But the talk around that game will be more about labor troubles in the NFL than about blocks and tackles. The NFL is headed for a road block.

The owners want out of their basic bargaining agreement with the players association. The owners signed off on a new deal in 2006. But, within months, there was buyers remorse.

Now the NFL owners have exercised an opt out. They want a do over. And the players union is in no mood to give them one. I’ve been told by people who should know that the real intent of the owners here is to permanently break the union.

In 2006, when Paul Tagliabue was the NFL commissioner and the late Gene Upshaw ran the NFLPA, the owners signed off on a deal that guaranteed their players 59-percent of the teams gross revenue. It was then, and remains now, the highest ‘cut’ of any of the four major sports. The owners say, it’s too high. And since 2007, or there abouts, they’ve been girding for a lockout. The target season: 2011. Everything the owners have done leads you to believe they will lock out the players in 2011, effectively stopping the games. The owners have hired the man who engineered the National Hockey League’s player lockout from a few years back. The owners have negotiated a contract with their television partners that will guarantee them payments form the networks, even if there are no games to televise.

Now you’re thinking, OK, 2011 is a long way off. But the impact will be immediate. Because the owners have opted out of their agreement with the players (which incidentally they had every right to do, given the contract language) 2010 will be an uncapped year. That means teams can spend as little as they want on player salaries this upcoming season, or a much as they want. Guess which side teams like the Patriots, Redskins and Cowboys will come down on. Guess which side your Cincinnati Bengals will choose.

Owners with deep pockets and big egos, like Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder could spend past imagination to try and build a championship team. Don’t think it could happen? In 2007, Snyder spent $130-million more than the Minnesota Vikings. Not $130 million dollars in salaries. $130-million dollars MORE than the Vikings.

Ir’s more than just dollars. It’s the stark reality of trying to fix a football team that might be just a player or two away from being really good. Think, your Cincinnati Bengals.

Up until this year, a player with four seasons of NFL under his belt would be available for some form of free agency. Not now. In this uncapped year of 2010, the years of service goes up to six. That will cut down on the free agent pool. Players like Denver’s Elvis Dumervil and San Diego’s Darren Sproels, are now off the market.

The top eight playoff finishers from the previous season would be allowed to sign free agents only at the rate at which they lose them. So maybe there’s a silver lining after all, to the Bengals stinking it up in the first round of the playoffs.

Each team would be allowed to restrict two eligible free agents with "franchise" or "transition" player tags, rather than one., further limiting the free agent pool. In essence, the chances for a team that is, shall we say frugal, of getting better overnight, aren’t all that good.

You heard a lot of rhetoric this week from the union boss, Demaurice Smith and from NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell. You’ll hear a lot more in the coming weeks and months. With no deal in place by this time next year, the strike rhetoric will overwhelm the game. A lot of voices are saying today that the NFL and it’s union won’t allow it to get to a point where the 2011 season is interrupted, that there is too much money on the line for both sides to kill this golden goose. But we heard that in 1982 and again in 1987. And both times a major piece of the seasons were interrupted.

It could happen again.

I mentioned this on my radio show Sunday, on 700 WLW: the Saints didn't have to be the better team Sunday to win the Super Bowl. They just had to be the better team for three hours, beginning at 6:25p EST. And, they were.

But it's still my contention that for the 2009 season, the best team in the NFL was the Indianpolis Colts. They were beaten by the better team Sunday night.

And I’ve been thinking about this all week. Why is Indianapolis so good? What makes that team the bell cow for every other team in the NFL, including the Bengals? And why do the Colts have a team that’s good enough to play in this game today and the Bengals don’t?

The easy answer is that the Colts have the best player in the game, Peyton Manning. But that also dismisses the other 30 teams in the league. So it’s deeper than that.

The better answer is drafting and assessing talent. If you’ve listened to this show for a moment, you know that I’ve consistently said the biggest problem the Bengals have, the one thing that has held this franchise back from contending is it’s process of player procurement. The Bengals struggle with it. The Colts excel at it.

In 1997, Indianapolis finished 3-13. They had the number one pick in the ’98 draft. They chose Manning. Could’ve taken Ryan Leaf. They Colts took Peyton Manning. In 1999, they finished 13-3 and won the AFC East.

But look at the other moves that came after that.

Also in ’99, they got Manning’s center, Jeff Saturday, off the unemployment line. Baltimore had cut him. He’s been the anchor of the Colts line ever since.

At right guard is Kyle DeVan, free agent pick up this past off season. Undrafted free agent. He was playing in the Arena2 league. He’ll start today in the Super Bowl.

Left guard, Ryan Lilja. Like DeVan, an undrafted free agent. He starts today. The Colts found him when the Chiefs let him go in 2004. That year, the Bengals were busy signing players like Kurt Kittner and Allen Augustin, names forgotten three minutes after they were signed.

The guy protecting Manning’s back side, left tackle Charlie Johnson, was a sixth round pick in 2006. The Bengals passed on him and took wide receiver Reggie McNeal. Johnson starts today. McNeal wound up posing for mug shots. Oh, in that same round in 2006, after the Bengals passed on Johnson and took McNeal, the Colts found the guys who’ll start at free safety today, Antoine Bethea. Correct me if I’m wrong haven’t the Bengals spent a lot of money and time trying to find safeties lately?

You get where this is going? The Bengals could have picked wide receiver Pierre Garcon in 2008. Instead, they passed on him twice in the 6th round of that draft. They took Corey Lynch and Chris Harrington. And don’t get me started on Jerome Simpson from that draft.

One of the best wide receivers in football was a first round pick in 2001. So was Justin Smith. The Colts took Reggie Wayne number 30 overall. Smith came here fourth overall.

And it’s not just offense. Don’t you think the Bengals would have saved a lot of free agent money, if they’d drafted defensive end Robert Mathis in 2003, instead of taking Kahlid Abdullah? Mathis had nine and a half sacks and five forced fumbles this season. Abdullah played two years here and had ten tackles total in his entire career. The Bengals took Abdullah two picks before Mathis.

And it’s knowing where the players fall through the cracks land, and how they’d fit into your system. Defensive tackle Daniel Muir for example. The Packers let him go in 2008. The Bengals could’ve claimed him. He’ll start for the Colts today. He was an undrafted free agent out of Kent State.

The Colts started undrafted free agents at safety, cornerback,and middle linebacker. Gary Brackett is the middle linebacker. Great story. He walked on at Rutgers, defensive captain by his senior season, undrafted free agent, starting in the Super Bowl today.

Why, in 2005 when they were desperate for cornerbacks, did the Bengals pass on Kelvin Hayden in round two and take Odell Thurman? Why did Hayden start in the Super Bowl and Thurman is in the UFL?

You like Dwight Freeney? Me too. Could have had him in 2002. He went one pick AFTER the Bengals took Levi Jones. What did Freeney have this season, 13 and a half sacks? And Jones is where right now? The Bengals also passed on Jeremy Shockey, Albert Haynesworth and Ed Reed in the first round of that draft. How’d that happen?

The answer to all of these questions is two words: Bill Polian. Actually, it’s four words: team President, Bill Polian. In ’97, he was fired by the Bills. The Colts didn’t waste a moment signing him. Why not? He got the Bills to four Super Bowls and the Colts, at least in their Indianapolis days, never had a whiff of one.

Polian had a vision, and more important, had a plan. He knew what kind of players he needed in his system to win. That’s why in the ’99 draft, he took Edgerrin James and passed on Ricky Williams. The Saints traded their entire lot of draft picks to get Williams AFTER Polian took James. Polian spent just one pick. The Saints spent six picks to get Williams.

There was the Corey Simon fiasco a few years back. But under Bill Polian, the Colts haven’t been big free agent spenders. It’s all about drafting, finding the players that should’ve been drafting and coaching.

For eleven seasons, the Colts have had a plan. Where have the Bengals been the last eleven seasons, or for most of the eleven before that.

Under Polian, the Colts have had their whiffs. But not many. The Bengals have faired better with some selections than Indianapolis. Rudi Johnson in round 4 instead of the Colts starting guard, Ryan Diem. Maybe a wash.

Look, I don’t know Bill Polian from the next guy. To be completely honest, in my first go round at channel 5 years ago, Polian was in Buffalo and was a jerk to deal with. I don’t sense anything warm and fuzzy about the guy. But he knows talent. And that’s why you should know this:

When you watched the Super Bowl, you saw a lot of guys playing for the Colts who easily could have been Cincinnati Bengals. And had they come here, instead of there, it might just as easily have been the Bengals in who played in Super Bowl XLIV.