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As we wait to see whether the NFL will actually have a season in 2011, one prominent member of the media has decided not to sit around.

Cris Collinsworth, a 12-time Emmy winner, former Bengals wideout, and analyst on NBC’s Sunday Night Football, has decided to work as a high school assistant coach while he waits for the lockout to end.

Collinsworth explains at his FootballPros.com site that he’ll be coaching receivers for Highlands High School, at the invitation of head coach Dale Mueller.

“I laughed,” Collinsworth writes. “He said he was serious. The pay wasn’t much (zero), but he promised I would have fun. My son Jac is one of the receivers on the team, and I had already polluted his brain with most of my receiving advice.

“But what the heck, the NFL will probably miss at least half of their season anyway, I agreed. Today is my first day. I just got the playbook and I feel like a first year rookie all over again. The plays are scrambled eggs in my brain, and I feel a little anxious.”

The fact that folks like Collinsworth already are making alternative plans for football season should tell the rest of us everything we need to know. It’s not looking good for the NFL to start on time in 2011, and the only real question at this point is whether there will be a truncated season or no season at all.