By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Although the start of the 2011 NFL season is still more than six months away, a player lockout enforced by team owners that began last month has more than a few fans wondering whether they will continue to support the league if the work stoppage continues much longer.

Last week, L’Observateur asked visitors to its website “How will the NFL lockout affect how you follow the league?” Although the most popular answers in the poll reflected the extremes in the spectrum, a large chunk of those who responded said the lockout would have some level of affect on how they watch games in the future.

A combined 37 percent of those who responded said they either have lost interest or will eventually lose interest the longer the lockout continues. The results show that many believe that if games start to get affected by the lockout, they will not return to watch once the stoppage is over.

Also, nearly one in four respondents said they do not watch football in the first place.

There are still many, however, who said that they are too entrenched in the league to care about the lockout. About 25 percent of those who participated said they enjoy the league too much to get upset over the work stoppage.

Complete results of the poll are as follows:

• 25 percent of respondents chose “I am too big of a fan for the lockout to affect my interest.”  

• 17 percent of respondents chose “I don’t like the situation and the longer it goes the more I lose interest.”

• 11 percent of respondents chose “It hasn’t affected my interest yet, but if games are affected I may stop watching.”

• 9 percent of respondents chose “I have lost interest. There are no signs it will end any time soon.”

• 38 percent of respondents chose “I don’t watch football.”