The inner workings of the NFL lockout, as demonstrated daily

To casual fans, it's one of the oddest concepts in the already-odd world of professional sports.

Pro athletes -- often paid millions annually to play a sport for a living -- threatening to go on strike and cancel sporting events across the United States? Really?

Well, yes and no.

Yes, they are typically paid millions, annually. Yes, sporting events are in danger of being cancelled. But no, it's not actually the players threatening to go on strike -- it's the owners, hence the term 'lockout,' not 'strike.'

So, yes, in the current situation in the news, NFL owners are threatening to, in many more words, lock the players out of their facilities and cease normal functioning as an NFL franchise in order to coerce the players' association into agreeing to a more favorable collective bargaining agreement that will allow them to profit more handsomely as the national economy continues to struggle and several owners fight to stay in the black.

Recent developments have made the likelihood that will happen a lot smaller. A U.S. District Court judge in Minnesota ruled Monday, on the side of the players, that the lockout was unlawful and ordered it ended, meaning that, as of right now, there is no lockout in the National Football League.

There's an issue, though. The NFL owners immediately appealed the ruling and also requested a special expedited stay, meaning that they want the enforcement of the ruling to wait until the appeal is heard. When a ruling is made on the stay request, we'll know whether or not the lockout will continue to not exist, but that could still change when the second ruling -- on the appeal -- takes place.

Confusing, right? Imagine if you're a NFL player waiting to get back into shape for the upcoming season. Even more confusing.

The NFL Players' Association emailed all of its members late Monday night, after the judge's initial decision was announced, letting them know they could report to their places of work Tuesday morning. A few did for each team across the country, with all but one player -- New York Giants defensive being turned away by management from the weight room and some not even being allowed in to the facilities. In other words, it sounds a lot like the lockout still exists to the owners.

On inside the fold, I typically try to take in-the-news issues and go over the media aspects covered within them. With this lockout ordeal, there are tons, but the most interesting is following along to which side the media takes as the lockout -- or what we know of it -- continues. Today, when NFL players tried to report to their team facilities, reporters all across the country staked them out and wrote stories on which players tried to report and the outcomes of those attempts. The resulting stories were decidedly player-favored, even in news stories, with owners and team staffers coming off as demanding and players coming off as simply inquisitive.

It's something we often forget as a general public -- the media, especially in sports, plays a large role in how stories are shaped over time. We mustn't forget it'll be the same this time as well.