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.
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.
2 comments:
You're dead on about the side-benefits of a playoff system in college football -- better games in September! Detractors said that it would take away from the regular season (because not every game would matter) but on the contrary it's made the regular season better! And while the SEC may have taken a few blows to the head, Alabama still looks like the team to beat. Surprised to see LSU and Oklahoma lose (I think this was LSU's first non-conference regular season loss in 14 years!) and wonder if Wisconsin and Houston are for real.
The NFL season may not have started yet but there have already been some marquee games in NFL stadiums (Lambeau and Jerry Dome). Hope springs eternal for all 32 teams this time of year (including the Cleveland Browns!) -- let's see how the season unfolds!
You are an optimist - hoping for the best even with the Browns :-)
Post a Comment