Where the NFL lockout and debt ceiling debate collide

The Atlantic' s Chris Good published an enjoyable Sunday read this afternoon arguing why the debt ceiling debate is like the NFL lockout. With the NFL Preseason start and Treasury Department predicted default day are both set for early August, Good playfully points to the interesting similarities of each situation and their deadlocked parties.

"Both sides recognize a deal should be done, and eventually will be done. Yet, somehow, they haven't been able to reach one. There's been posturing on both sides. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor walked out of talks led by Vice President Biden. The players' union disbanded. On Saturday night, House Speaker John Boehner said he wants to pursue a smaller deal, closer to what Biden's working group discussed. Obama, according to his Treasury secretary, now wants more cuts than Republicans do. But when it hits the fan in early August, no one expects the U.S. to default on its debt, and no one thinks the NFL will cease to operate as a sports league, or even bring in replacement players. As serious as all this negotiating is, it is also the very definition of charade.

I'm not necessarily confident that these billion and trillion-dollar stalemates can really inform our opinions of each other, or that there is intrinsic value in sports-life, sports-politics, or sports-deficit parallels, but there's something about watching these things play out that makes people cringe in the same way."

Some of Good's better points include the similar negative ripple effect the U.S. default will have on the world economy, to the domino collapse an NFL lockout will have on the likes of athletic apparel brands and sports bars. As well as the similarities between NFL negotiations on retired players' benefits, and debt ceiling talks discussing possible changes to social security.

Good wisely asserts the major difference between each situation to be the serious negative consequences that could be at play in the debt ceiling debate, rather than the simple suspension of men playing a kid's game in the NFL.