Good morning Junk Food Nation!  Huzzah huzzah, the NFL Lockout is over!  The owners finally get back the money train they lost temporarily.  The players finally get to go back to work and earn their dough.  And we fans…well, we really haven’t been impacted one bit, except we lost the chance to watch the horrible Hall of Fame game.

Trading and deals with rookies can begin today at 10AM EST.  I am expecting these next few days to be a flurry of transaction and roster activity – and for an NFL fan like me, I am giddy like a schoolgirl.  I think I actually giggled out loud and clapped my hands in a silly fashion just now thinking about who my beloved Buffalo Bills might sign.

Meanwhile, let’s put the past four months in retrospect. The whole process has been emotionally draining for any sports fan.  Citizens of this great country have been following every single detail of this NFL lockout discussion since March. Everyone knows who Roger Goodell, DeMaurice Smith, and George Atallah are. Everyone knows details about the rookie wage scale, about the media revenue sharing deal, about the retired players’ demands. Fans have been following/absorbing/craving the headlines – “Owners lockout players,” “Players union decertifies,” “Talks break down.”  People have learned more about the appellate process and federal courts during this negotiation than they might’ve their entire lives.  Every shred of news has been covered extensively by ESPN and every major news outlet, and we have lapped it up.

And what’s amazing to me is this: although I read the news, I definitely haven’t put similar time and commitment into such issues in the news such as Japan’s rebuilding project, Norway’s recent disaster, nor the debt ceiling controversy. A sad admission; I’m not trying to spin it.  But when it came to this damn NFL lockout, I was glued to the TV.  And imagine many of you were too. More on this after the jump.

Today’s junk food: Rold Gold Cheesy Garlic Pretzel Nuggets!

The Money Shot

Ok, I have confession to make.  I LOVE RED LOBSTER CHEESY GARLIC BISCUITS.  And I imagine some of you gluttons out there like them too.  I can plow through two baskets of those blickies before my entree comes.

So when I saw these Rold Gold Pretzels, I grabbed them off the rack in a heart beat.  I mean, c’mon, how can you see the words NEW and CHEESY and GARLIC and pass by?

I. LOVE. CHEESE. BREAD.

Cheese bread is, indeed, one of my favorite things in this world.  Taking that cheese bread, slicing it, toasting it, and slathering it with garlic butter?  EVEN BETTER.  And then shrinking that toasty bread down into bite-size pieces?  Mind blowing.  After I saw the photo of the bread on the bag, I had to stop myself from seeking out actual cheese bread in the store.  One carb at a time, please.

All-Natural Trend

These pretzels were made with all-natural ingredients…but how’d they do it?  Let’s take a look at the back of bag description.

Love it, LOVE IT!

Um, yes please.  All I needed to hear is that these little pretzel nuggets were basically shrunken down loaves of cheesy garlic bread, and I was IN.

Golden nuggets!

Logs of flavor 🙂

Looking at the open bag, nothing too shocking here.  I’ve had plenty of pretzel nuggets before, so I knew what to except.  Each piece had a nice golden sheen to it, and there was no discernible powdering on the snack.  Baked-In flavor, huh, Rold Gold?  We shall see.

Like a loaf of garlic bread! (1)

Like a loaf of garlic bread! (2)

UM ARE YOU PEOPLE SEEING THIS?  Up close, these little nuggets look like perfectly baked loaves of cheesy garlic bread.  Yummy yummy.  Aesthetically, Rold Gold, you get top marks.  Then it was time for a bite…

Crunch crunch crunch

Good god, they really did taste like loaves of cheesy garlic bread!  Not overpowering, and there was still pretzel taste, but with the first chomp, my mouth was filled with a garlic-y air and subsequent chews really brought out the cheesy garlic taste I was familiar with.

It’s fair to say I sampled another two or thirty to really flesh out the flavor profile.  These pretzels were so reminiscent of those cheesy garlic biscuits I couldn’t stop eating them.  Highly recommended if you like that flavor profile!

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During this whole lockout business, I would literally turn on ESPN news and read the ticker for fifteen minutes straight just to see if I missed an alert.  I was checking my iPhone for updates every half hour.

I know more about the NFL lockout than I do about anything happening in the federal government, international news, or even Hollywood E-news right now.  With the lockout over, I literally watched three hours of ESPN “lockout over” coverage last night as analysts broke down each team and what they needed to do during this free agent frenzy.

Look, I know about current events, I read the news, I flipped back and forth between ESPN and the two budget speeches.  I try not to live in a sports bubble.  I have an opinion about what Washington, the city I live in, should be doing.  I feel like I’m informed.

But when it comes to the NFL lockout, I realize I am more than informed – I feel like an expert.  Which is a sobering realization.

Sincerely, Junk Food Guy