Ok pigskin lovers, the dog days of Summer and pointless baseball after pointless baseball game is about over.  Pre-Season is here, NCAA football begins on August 28th!!!!!! Holy CRAP!  9/1 the big college kickoff weekend.  Yes indeed. 

 

Well, being that this is the LFL, it's an NFL game and we have to keep our focus here on the NFL until I can round up enough willing participants to tackle NCAA football with me, so with that, let's take a look at the teams that are poised for greatness in 2008:

 

 

As always, the NE Patriots are on the radar.  Brady may be a bit compromised being the new dad to his exgf's baby while having Giselle oddly competing against both the ex and the newborn....but he does have Randy Moss to go deep with even when whichever Brazilian bombshell supervixenmodel decides to deny him.  Also, and pay attention to this....the Patriots had the single greatest free agent pickup of the offseason....a total stealth move, being disguised by the Moss pickup...and that is Wes Welker, a small, fast, shifty, crafty, stealth receiver from Miami, who stupidly let him go, but that's alright since his skills will be better utilized by the braintrust in New England.  Look for their offseason moves to shore up the difference between they and the Colts, whose defeat of NE will only feed the drive of the Patriots' maniacal genius head coach.  And let's not forget that they also have the great Vincent Constantine Testaverde they can trot out to the field in the event Brady actually has to be a dad or something.

 

Next up, we stay in the AFC and examine the curious existence of your San Diego SuperChargers, who after really their best season ever, chucked their head coach and hired some other guy to take the reigns.  Will their move put them over the top in the playoffs, to challenge the Pats and the Colts (who as defending champs default to a team to watch, and rightfully so since they have so much talent, all returning)?  Time will tell.  Having the best ballcarrier in the game, LT, will not hinder them of course, and QB Rivers should be poised for a big 2007. 

 

That's great and all Torty, but those teams are all great AFC performers from last year...what else do  you got?  Well, first, another decent AFC team is Denver, and I expect them to also be a contender in 2007, and I'm putting them even higher on that list than they would've been last year since Cutler should show clear signs of improvement from last year, when they made that odd switch from Plummer (though I hate Jake b/c the way he can win games you should lose is the same way he loses ones you should win) when the Broncs were sitting pretty at like 7-3 or 6-4.  That was last year right?  Jesus, Baltimore, Tennessee and Jacksonville all deserve to be in this same second tier AFC mention too.  But of them, while the Raves and Jags have a tougher defensive mentality, I'm going to show deference to the Titans as Vince Young looks to propel his awesome rookie season even further.

 

Beneath all these amazing AFC teams however is some stirring.  In fact, stirring so deep that it is coming from the southernmost team in all the land, in the warm waters of South Florida, where the Miami Dolphins are going to have the best year of their past 3, easily.  The phony Saban era ended after 2 pathetic years, thank God, as he is another Steve Spurrier and I knew it all along.  And the Phins have picked up the man behind the offensive mayhem the SD Chargers unleashed on their oppenents the past couple years, their former offensive coordinator Cam Cameron.  The Phins have finally got a solid veteran QB, Trent Green, from KC; Ronnie Brown is a horse; the defense is still top 5 or 6.  Miami is my pick to rise up and make the playoffs THIS YEAR....you hear me you baselessly smug Sean Salisbury?  You stupid bastard. 

 

I also think those pesky Jets might have something in store for this year, I'm just saying.  And a new era begins in Pittsburgh...as the Stillers try to keep things together, and they are in a very weak division....but I do think the Bengals will have their number, both times, and I also am foreseeing a Brady Quinn led Browns defeat of the Steelers, in three rivers.

 

UNTO THE NFC......the home of the second-rate teams of the NFL

 

Starting with the defending runner up Chicago Bears.....can they do as they did all year long last year, and win despite Rex Grossman?  It doesn't look very good in preseason, and I expect the Bears to do much, though they are the best team by far in the shitty NFC Norse or North. 

 

St Louis and Seattle should both remain competent powers, but not deserving of further mention.

 

Big D should be pretty good, I'm thinking.  Not sure about that coaching move, but the Boys seems like it'll be good in the relatively week NFC.  Carolina is another solid team. 

 

But my eyes are going to be on New Orleans to make a major move this year, as well as the bay area!  No, not my Tampa Bay area, but the SF bay area as the 9ers will be a force to be reckoned with this year, challenging the Chargers as the best team in Cali.