Football is rolling already.

The NFL season kicked off in style and is off and running in full force already. We got some great games, fantastic finishes, and good story lines as always. The Carolina at Denver game on Thursday night kicked things off  with a close finish. Despite my reduced expectation for that game, it gave us fans exactly what we wanted. Trevor Siemian's play and Cam Newton's beating were the headlines from that game. Cam is an absolute baller. He had a great game despite the monster hits he suffered. Both the man and his game are large and the zebras are having problems officiating him appropriately. Some of the hits were brutal, especially for a QB, and the flags were nowhere to be found. This may change how the Panthers play Cam in the near future. They need to protect him. They should cut down on his scrambles and runs, though a lot of his hits in this game happened in the pocket. But why increase his exposure anyways? He is too important for the reigning NFC champions. Big win for Denver and Siemian. The Broncos have a good team with that defense and a running game centered around C.J.Anderson.

It's been a while since the Raiders were the top story of the week. They sure were the headliner this week as coach Jack Del Rio went for 2 and a win at the end of regulation instead of a tie and overtime. I have never seen that in the NFL. Definitely not in week 1 with a young team trying to make the playoffs for a franchise coming of several horrible years. You see such calls once in a while in college but only towards the end of the season in the NFL with real bad teams that have nothing to play for. Del Rio nailed it here and this win should give the Raiders a tonne of confidence and self-belief. Saints D is horrible and the Raiders D didn't play much better either, but the Raiders are going to truly believe they are playoff-bound after this road win. It's about time for the silver and black. Packers, Chiefs, Giants, Lions, Cowboys, and the Patriots won close and exciting games on this fun NFL Sunday.

That last game in that list between the Patriots and the Cardinals was a heart-breaker for us Cards fans. Kicker Chandler Catanzaro missed what should have been a game winning field goal. The Super Bowl dreaming Cards lost to Hoodie who came in without his pretty boy QB, super star TE, and couple of other key players and still stole a win. Tough loss for the Cards who have to be now satisfied with a good week for David Johnson coupled with a decent performance by Carson Palmer and live to fight another day. They better win next week against Tampa Bay. Dolphins almost knocked off the Seahawks, but "almost" doesn't get you a "w" in the standings. The Monday night games were duds as  Pittsburgh crushed Washington and the Rams looked so horrible that the LA fans probably want them to move back to St. Louis after just one game. The Rams made the 49ers look like world beaters. Blaine Gabbert and the Niners offense were turrible as Chales Barkley would say, but they still won 28-0. Kaep's protest is spreading as many NFL players either kneeled, locked arms, or raised their fist during the anthem even on 9/11. Peaceful protests continue. As always, injuries in the NFL blows and Keenan Allen's season-ending ACL tear was unfortunate. Poor guy can't catch a break.

No more Honey-dues!

There is a funny radio AD playing these days. I think it's on Fox Sports radio and is a promotion for the upcoming NFL season. It warns all women that they should be ready to "lose" their boyfriends and husbands to football. The implication being that men are going to be glued to their TVs watching football starting soon. No time for honey-dues rest of the year! It's a funny AD, but also a fairly accurate depiction of the American reality. Most Blue-blooded American males and some females are so in love with football, both college and pro, that weekends will be exclusively reserved for appointment TV watching if left to their own devices. Thats the power of football and fantasy and gambling only help turbo-charge football's popularity. Every year, the pain of summer's exit is offset by the pleasure of football's arrival. College ball started last weekend and served as a nice appetizer before the main course, the National Football League.

Week one in college football usually features a bunch of cupcake games. It was a pleasant surprise this season as we had a whole bunch of stellar non-conference matchups last weekend. We can all thank three major reasons for this positive development. One, the increase in neutral site games and the financial ramifications of this ensured these sites got some meaty matchups. The 4-team playoff also means one loss does not completely destroy a team's season like in the old days. Superpowers are more willing to take on great challenges, especially early in the season. Also, the playoff committee looks at strength of schedule. This means teams are better off playing some real games instead of scheduling North East Appalachian state at home during the pre-season. With all that said, most teams are back to playing North East Appalachian state in week 2 coming up here. But week 1 was truly awesome and they will all be jumping into their conference contests soon anyways.

We got to see fun non-conference games like Stanford-V-Kansas State, LSU-V-Wisconsin, Notre Dame-V-Texas, Florida State-V-Ole Miss, Texas A&M-V-UCLA, and USC-V-Alabama. Most of the games were close contests with a couple of them even requiring overtime. It reminded us right away why we love football and what we have been missing for the last 7 months. Only the most hyped game of them all, Alabama-USC, disappointed as Alabama annihilated USC. Alabama seems to be on a planet of its own and even it's SEC counterparts didn't look too great in week 1. Neither did Pac-12, though Pac-12 might still be a deep and dangerous place. These games also featured amazing freshmen QBs. Quarterbacks are coming into the NFL more and more prepared and it turns out, the high school QBs are coming into college well-rounded as well. Just another sign of how professional and well-organized the entire sports pipeline has become.

That was fun, but the main event starts tomorrow. Super Bowl rematch on Thursday night kicks off the NFL season. The excitement of NFL being back is undeniable, but I have to admit, this season opener is a little less exciting than usual. Peyton Manning's retirement and the unknown Trevor Siemian working under center are the main reasons for it. However, in real football terms, there is probably not much missing for Denver from last year as Manning was just a name and a shell of his former self. But he was still Peyton and must-see TV every week for the fans. Tom Brady will be missing in action too due to his suspension and that takes a lot of excitement out of the Pats-Cards Sunday Night matchup. I am still excited for it as this is a very important season for Arizona. The Kaepernick story is still out there and I am happy and proud of him. He has really started something interesting here and the story is going much better than I expected for him personally. He is talking well on the issues, making some adjustments like kneeling instead of sitting during the anthem, attracting support from fellow athletes, and is raising general awareness on a tricky topic. Kudos and good luck to Kaep.