The Season Is Upon Us

Jack the Blogger has his picks up for the 2007 NFL season.  Needless to say, this shames me into putting up my own, (though I have the suspicion that I don't take mine nearly as serious as Jack takes his ...)  I do feel remarkably better informed than previous years, simply by virtue of having watched a metric ton of pre-season ball.  So, without further ado;

The NFC East.

McNabb is as good as his detractors wish he wasn't, but he faces a talented division geared to crush him.  They will.  This is the do-or-die year for Eli Manning.  Personally, I look forward to seeing him with a better system after the Giants trade him away.  Washington still has the talent from hell, and they still seem incapable of putting it all together.  Wade is a good fit in Dallas, hence ...

1. Dallas Cowboys
2. Philadelphia Eagles
3. Washington Redskins
4. New York Giants

The NFC North.

My wildest prediction of the year (so far):  Chicago is gonna fall flat on it's face.  Yes they have hella talent, but they won't make it past the first round of the playoffs.  Watch out for Detroit.  They might actually win 5 games, more if they give Tatum Bell running lanes and keep him healthy.  Favre is well past his prime and only returns to break Elway's record of most wins.  I'll laugh when he doesn't do it.  Minnesota is the stealth power.  They're aren't great, but they're good ... at least good enough to surprise everybody and win the the weakest division in pro ball.

1. Minnesota Vikings
2. Chicago Bears
3. Detroit Lions
4. Green Bay Packers

The NFC South.

This bunchy is intriguing .  New Orleans is all that, and I expect them to make their first ever Super Bowl.  But the rest are gonna be fun to watch.  The Bucs are toast, but very dangerous in low scoring games.  It will be more fun to watch their revolving quarterback woes.  The Panthers are just too inconsistent.  Joey Harrington is gonna shock the socks off the football world, and take the Falcons to second place in this interesting group.  I won't be surprised at all, if the Falcons make the playoffs as a wild-card team.

1. New Orleans Saints
2. Atlanta Falcons
3. Carolina Panthers
4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The NFC West.

The most improved team in football will be the San Francisco 49ers.  The Rams will just cruise in mediocrity, and the Red Birds will thrill everybody ... with their stadium.  Actually, the Cardinals can put it together.  They have a helluva an offense, but don't seem to want to win.  I still think they beat the Rams, though place below them.  Oh yeah ... the Seahawks are good enough.

1. Seattle Seahawks
2. San Francisco 49ers
3. St. Louis Rams
4. Arizona Cardinals

The AFC East.

Yes, The Patriots are very good.  So What?  They win the East hands down.  The Bills suffer from a brutal schedule, and Miami reminds us all that defense may win championships, but not games.   The Jets ... they're not too bad.  Not too bad at all.  I think they'll play in January.

1. New England Patriots
2. New York Jets
3. Miami Dolphins
4. Buffalo Bills

The AFC North.

Are you ready for some football?  Only an idiot would try and predict this division ... so I predict that Palmer makes it happen.  As annoying as he can be, Ocho Cinco is all that and then some.  The Ravens are okay, but I think they get surprised by Pittsburgh.  Cleveland will be the ultimate spoiler.  Whoever doesn't show the Brownies props, loses the division because of it.

1. Cincinnati Bengals
2. Pittsburgh Steelers
3. Baltimore Ravens
4. Cleveland Browns

The AFC South.

Colts, 'nuff said.  Okay, maybe not.  All those folk up in Autumn-Leaf-land better think again about crowning Brady as a demi-God.  The Colts are for real, and they are seriously gonna mess some teams up.  You might score 30 points on them.  Too bad that they scored 40.  The Champs will not go down without a fight.  The season opener between the Colts and the Saints could well be your early season Super Bowl preview.  Oh yeah, there's other teams that play in the South too.  Del Rio good, Vince Young okay, Kubiak will surprise.

1. Indianapolis Colts
2. Jacksonville Jaguars
3. Houston Texans
4. Tennessee Titans

My Beloved AFC West.

Let's face it.  Other than Larry Johnson, the Chiefs are just puffin' in the wind.  Of course, Larry's pretty damned good.  The second most improved team of the year is also from the bay area, and that would be the Raiders.  That defense is scary, and Culpepper has found a home that suits him.  Their O line still sucks, though that may not matter with a behemoth behind center.  The real surprise on the western fields is likely to be the Broncos ... and not in a good way.  Their running attack will pucker defensive rectums across the league, but they seem incapable of stopping the run, and of pressuring the quarterback.  Simeon Rice *might* solve the latter problem, but it looks like the Broncos will need some many weeks to pull it all together.  Dre Bly has not lived up to billing, though it seems that wisdom councils truth:  do not, *not* I say, pass in the direction of the Bailey.  I worry, yes I do.  The Chargers remain mostly intact under an half-assed coach, but with the best player currently in the game.  So, one wonders really who to pick.  I'm going to go with my gut, and believe that the Broncos can pull it together before it really starts to matter.

1. Denver Broncos
2. San Diego Chargers
3. Oakland Raiders
4. Kansas City Chiefs

Comments

[Jay Stevens]

Patsies! All! the! way!

Colts? Pah! Brady almost took 'em last year with a quarter of the talent. Do you really believe Manning and the gang can take a NE team with equal or better talent? Yeah, me neither.

Of course with Seymour hurt...

[Jeff]

Culpepper will be a disappointment again. A fragile behemoth he is.

Then again, that's a bitter Dolphins fan speaking.

[Steve Jones]

The Arizona Cardinals in the basement again? Say it ain't so!

I think Dollar Bill Bidwill has leased the basement for the next five years, with an option on the following two.

Not that I follow the NFL. The Cardinals are an embarrassment to serious-minded local nobs and a joke to the rest of us. I only feel sorry for their fans.

But, yes, they have a shiny new stadium, and it will host the next advertisers' holy of holies in January. I don't know how that whole roll-the-field-out-into-the-sun-and-inside-for-the-game deal is working, but hopefully it's working better than the BOBSod in what is now Chase Field, what with the banking industry's consolidation continuing apace. By mid-June, they're usually having to cut sod patches into the outfielders' usual spots.

Now we're getting to my sport, baseball. I grew up here with the Giants' AAA team, the Phoenix Giants, later called the Firebirds for some reason, at Phoenix Muni and then Scottsdale Stadium, the Giants' spring training home.

About 13 years ago, the local nobs thought it a good idea to pursue an MLB franchise. Twice they put measures on the ballot, once in Phoenix and then for the whole of Maricopa County. Both times they were resoundingly told, "no, thank you" by the voters.

In desperation, they turned to the state legislature, ever-reliable when it came to spending money on ego-building monuments. Soon, and fairly cheaply, they bought themselves a law allowing county boards of supervisors to establish "sports authorities", and grant them the power of taxation.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors latched onto this teat and, not satisfied with the prospect of naming local cronies to the sports authority's board, named themselves to the board.

This led to one difficulty. One of the supervisors/sports authority board members had a conflict of interest, as her family owned land in consideration for the ballfield's site. She demurred. But of the remaining four members, the vote was 3-1 to deliver public funds to house an MLB expansion franchise.

Thus were the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the unfortunate Tampa Bay Devil Rays, produced. And, thus were the Phoenix Firebirds forced out of town to become the Fresno Grizzlies.

But there were repercussions. One of the dual-hat-wearing supervisors/sports authoritarians was accosted and shot in the ass by an unhappy constituent.

And later, the eminent domain card had to be used against Beatrice Villareal, a woman whose husband built her a home in the late 1930's, little knowing that their little plot of land would later be needed to park a few dozen cars.

In the memory of Ms Villareal, I will never set foot in that goddamned monument to excess and ego.

It's a pitiful stand, but it is mine.

[Steve T.]

Glad to see someone not giving my Jets a complete shaft.

[Britt]

Ahh Damn, I hate this time of year. Suddenly, highly intelligent people with sound minds and something interesting to say go the way of the Dodo Bird :(

[Gully]

Good call...although a Chargers fan, after we laid an egg that smelled like death-warmed-over against New England, Denver should prevail. Yes, they barely beat the Bills and Raiders...but Shanahan is tough.