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There are certain things in life that keep us going. Family, faith and football are those things. If something happens to one of those three constants then our entire world gets turned upside down.

Four dollars a gallon of gas is an inconvenience. Your NFL team not making the playoffs since before the Iraq War, causes you to resent your family and question your faith. OK, I may have exaggerated. There’s no reason to take it out on your family. Now God, he has some explaining to do.

But seriously, the beauty of the NFL is that everyone has a chance to win. Every year. Hope is always present, even after a 1-15 season. Every league strives to be the NFL. They have parity, a salary cap and an even playing field for everyone.

Have is about to become had.

On Tuesday, the NFL will begin the process of blowing things up and dramatically changing the way they do business. Why? Money. Isn’t it always about money? But when your yearly revenue is 11 figures, that’s tens of billions, it still begs the question, Why?

Before we try to answer that, let’s get to the how. The NFL owners are going to vote to terminate their collective bargaining agreement with the players. For the next two years, that will produce very few changes in the way the NFL is run.

Then the fun starts. Beginning in 2010, no more salary cap. That’s right, Green Bay Packers fans, your team which is owned by a city and shareholders will have to bid for players against billionaire Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys.

Can you say Pittsburgh Pirates vs. New York Yankees? So much for competitive balance. The NFL in two years will become Major League Baseball. Haves vs. Have nots. When the Have nots start to win, the Haves buy their players. The process repeats itself until the Haves run out of money.

This just in: They never do.

Miami will become the Dodgers, the Jaguars will become the Marlins and the Tampa Bay Bucs will be somewhere in between.

Ah, the hits just keep on coming. The NFL Draft will disappear by 2012. Yup, all the college players will be free to play for the team of their choosing.

The richest franchises will thrive. The poorer ones will become the Kansas City Royals. Quick trivia question: When was the last time the Royals had a winning season? Answer: 1993. The last time they made the playoffs? 1987.

At this point I’d like to recommend that Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter forget about Spygate and order every NFL owner to take a drug test before a Congressional inquiry.

Oh wait, there’s more. In between the elimination of the salary cap and the draft, the league will likely shut down. You heard me. No NFL. Not on Sundays. Or Mondays. Or the occasional Thursday or Saturday either.

Now if the NFL does decide to play without Tom Brady, two Mannings and any of the six Tampa Bay Bucs QBs, don’t worry. That’s where the replacement players come in.

Who? Not Keanu Reeves at QB (“The Replacements’’ was a corny movie but managed to get the job done). Think the Florida Firecats. Nice guys who will play very hard and could use the money. They are also three levels below the NFL.

This brings us back to why. Why would the NFL and its players risk everything when they seem to already have it all? Money. The players get 57 percent of all joint revenue. The players want it to be over 60 percent. The owners want it to be closer to 50 percent. The players claim the owners are hiding money from them. The owners claim to be drowning in debt.

I’m not making that up. The owners have built many new stadiums in the last 10 years and claim to be losing money, big money on them.

n Free Agency. The current player needs four years to become a free agent. The players want it to be reduced to three years. The owners want it to be six.

n Guaranteed Money. The owners want the rookies to have a salary cap. The players want the veterans to have all their salaries guaranteed, like baseball.

For the record, the average salary in the NFL is 2 million dollars. The average franchise is worth over half a billion dollars.

Nothing touches your heart quite like billionaires fighting with millionaires. I’m sure us fans will be understanding.

After all, it is our cable bills combined with us buying the NFL Sunday Ticket that produces much of that 57 percent. If that’s not enough, we pay $30 to park, $75 a ticket (including preseason games) and in some cases, seat licensing fees of $10,000 just to get away from the rigors of life for awhile.

And you guys can’t manage to get by on, conservatively, $10 billion a year?

Give me a break.

If these 32 owners, 1,700 players, a union chief and a commissioner manage to screw up the most successful sports league ever, then they deserve to be broke. All of them.

The NFL without a salary cap and a draft?

New Coke was a better idea.

Britney shaving her head was a better idea.

Michael Dukakis riding in the tank was a better idea.

Deep breaths, deep breaths ...

So enjoy the next two NFL seasons. The beginning of the end is within sight.

Forrest Gump was right. Stupid is as Stupid does.

Unbelievable.

David Moulton is co-host of “Miller and Moulton in the Afternoon”, Weekdays 3-7 p.m. on SportsRadio 770/ESPN. His columns appear every Sunday. David can be reached at: millerandmoulton@sportsradio770.com