With the expiration of the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement and with players locked out of team activities, hundreds of newly unemployed football players will undoubtedly struggle to keep themselves and their families from going hungry.

Especially those making rookie and veteran minimums. Six-figure salaries can only stretch so far, you know?

One player, though, isn’t going to sit idly by as one of the unemployed. Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco, never one to shy away from media exposure, decided to take Major League Soccer club Sporting Kansas City up on its offer for him to try out for the team.

Before he took the pitch yesterday, I figured the try-out would be a production even worse than his VH1 show, The Ultimate Catch.

But when he set foot on the field in his No. 85 warm-ups, he seemed to be taking it seriously, participating in calisthenics, passing and dribbling drills and an 11-on-11 scrimmage. All without his own entourage or camera crew following him around.

Ochocinco might be the focal point, but seeing an NFL player try his hand (or feet, as the case may be) at soccer could generate the kind of interest soccer has been trying to grab in the United States since the 1970s.

As unlikely as it is, I hope he somehow makes the team. Can you imagine what kind of celebration he would unleash in a league that doesn’t care about outlandish self-promotion nearly as much as the “No Fun League?”