The NFL season starts tonight so here are my picks for the first week of the 2009 NFL season.

Vick’s sentence ends

Now that Micheal Vick’s prison sentence has ended, everybody is wondering what future he has in the NFL.  The commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodell, has been very quiet on whether he will reinstate Vick or not.  I personally think that Vick has paid his debt to society and should be reinstated by the NFL.  Now if he does get reinstated, that does not secure him a position on any NFL team.  The Falcons released Vick long ago so he would become a free agent.  Once all that has happened, he will have to sit and wait to see if any teams will be interested in him.  There are many factors that go against Vick playing in the NFL in 2009, even if he does get reinstated.  First off is that there is obviously a huge amount of risk involved in taking in a player with that much media attention.  He will be a distraction and put unwanted media attention on any team he joins.  Second, teams would probobly preffer that Vick would come to the team sometime in training camp, altough that is highly unlikely.  Vick still needs to get in shape and get accustumed to the high-flying action of the NFL.  Some teams that I think might show some interest in vick as a possible backup or part time quarterback are the Eagles, Dolphins, Seahawks, and the Broncos.  All of these teams either have uncertain quarterback situations, injury prone quarterbacks, or their offense would be a somewhat Vick-friendly offense.

Favre Watch….Part 2?

Here we go again, the entire NFL world turns it attention to football’s never ending drama, “the return of Brett Favre.”  Last year it was the Packers and the Jets, now its the Vikings.  Everybody is jumping for joy at the thought of another summer of endless favre watching.  Is anybody else getting really disinterested in the whole thing?  I mean yea I check updates daily on ESPN, but it is not as interesting as it was last year.  Yet somehow the repeating story of the most indecisive man in football gets all the media attention in the world.  Now the story goes that Favre will decide whether or not he return to football and join the Vikings by the time training camp starts.  Favre continues to test his surgically repaired throwing shoulder at his local high school.  As far as i’m concerned Favre would not make a huge impact on the Vikings.  The main part of the Vikings offense is of course the running game, featuring Adrian Peterson.  They have a good developing quarterback in Tavaris Jackson that can get the job done.  The Vikings don’t need Brett Favre to be a good team.  Some people say that Brett Favre would add a passing game to the Vikings offense, but I have a different opinion.  In a run based offense, a big part is ball control, and making the defense tired with long possessions.  That does not work if you have Brett Favre as your quarterback, throwing interceptions and chucking the football 30 yards downfield.  Overall, I think that Brett Favre needs to stay home, nurse his throwing arm, stay with his family, and stay off the football field.  I am not trying to be mean, I just think that he needs to make up his mind, and stick to his decision.  Also, if he does become a Viking, I don’t think he will help very much and he might even hurt the Viking’s offense.

There are a couple of things that I want to talk about for the winter sports season so far.

The Chiefs Future

Ever since Tyler Thigpen got the starting QB job in KC, the Chiefs actually look like a football team.  Thigpen reminds me a lot of a young Daunte’ Culpepper.  He can Scramble out of the pocket to extend plays and he can run the ball for a first down.  If the Chiefs can get him a decent WR and a RB that does not assault his coach, the Chiefs could be a respectable football team.  I know the defense needs a lot of work but hey, you have to start somewhere.  I’m not saying the Chiefs will be good in a year or even a couple of years, all that I am saying is that with a couple of good draft picks, they could be a okay team.

Plaxico Burress

I have to blog on this topic.  First of all, everyone knows the situation with Burress, owning a gun illegally, shooting himself, and now facing prison time.  To me, I don’t think that you should have a gun if your not even smart enough to #1 get a legal permit and #2 not shoot yourself.  If you don’t know how to use a gun responsibly, then you should not have one.  You don’t just flash the gun around either.  Most people say that he had the gun because of a recent string of NFL players being robbed at gunpoint.  This is perfectly acceptable and I have no problem with someone owning a gun to protect themselves.  The problem I have is when people don’t use the gun responsibly.  As a professional athlete, Burress is an icon and role model.  If he goes around shooting himself, then that gives him a very, very bad name.  Secondly, he did not have a current permit for the gun.  Once again, he was not very responsible with the gun.  To me, this ends his football career, not the injury, but the legal problems he will face.  If he is convicted of illegal possession of a weapon it is a minimum of 3 1/2 years in jail.

The Lions Will go 0-16

Most of the time when a team is threatening to go 0-16 the only thing that saves them is a team resting starters late in the year.  This is not the case for the 2008 Lions.  In all of their remaining games, they face teams fighting for a playoff spot.  They are at home against Minnesota, at Indianapolis, at home against New Orleans, and to Green Bay.  Maybe not all of these teams are fighting for the playoffs(New Orleans), but none of them are going to rest their starters.  If I had to pick a game that the Lions could win it would bethe last game in Green Bay.  By then, the Packers may be out of a division title spot, so they will not be fighting very hard to win.  On the other side the Lions have something to fight for, pride.  Nobody wants to be remembered as the first 0-16 team.  Throughout all this, I still think the Packers will win this game.  The fans at lambeau will not let their team lose a winless team.

NFL MVP

This year the field for NFL MVP is very crowded.  I am trying to decide whether it should be Clinton Portis, or Kurt Warner, that’s right I said Kurt Warner.  Right now I am leaning towards Clinton Portis.  His team plays in a much tougher division and he has just flat out played better.  One of the reasons that I think a lot of people think it should be Warner is because of his age.  If he was a average joe 29 year old that had been playing for only 5 years, I don’t think he would be in the MVP hunt.  The fact that he is as old as he is, done what he has in St. Louis and then come to Arizona and done the same thing gives him a certain quality that no other player has.  Also, if the Cardinals did not play 8 games during the season against division opponents, I don’t think he would have the numbers that he does.  Last week you saw what a NFC East opponent did to him, and Portis has had to play against that all season.  All in all, Clinton Portis should be MVP.

NBA 2010?

I think that all the free agent talk of 2010 is stupid.  How can you speculate what will happen in 2 years?  That is like trying to predict next years super bowl.  A lot of things will change between now and then and the priorities of teams may have changed.  Even if the free agent class of 2010 is almost its own all-star team, you still don’t speculate about it for 2 years.  Also, people act like its a given that these players will leave the team that they are at.  Do you really think that these franchises are going to give up there best players without a fight.  The biggest name in the free agent class is Lebron James.  I don’t know what will happen in 2010, but I am not so sure he will leave Cleveland.  It is his hometown, it was a dream scenario when the Cavs drafted him, and his team is one of the best in the league right now.  With all that said, just pay attention to this years season and off-season, not the 2010 season.

Oklahoma-Texas

I cannot believe that Oklahoma beat out Texas to go to the Big 12 Title Game.  Everyone was saying that Oklahoma deserved it because of the way they beat Texas Tech.  I have one point about this and no one can argue it.  The Texas-Oklahoma game has already been played and as far as I know, Texas won.  There should be no controversy about who should be in this title game.  If you want to talk about which team is better, Texas or Oklahoma, its simple, that game has been played already and Texas won on a neutral field 45-35.

BCS Title Game

Now that Florida beat Alabama and Oklahoma beat Missouri, it is pretty much settled who will be in the national title game.  This is almost a dream scenario for the BCS.  It is pretty clear cut who will be in the national title game.Every Texas fan will complain, but what has happened has happened and that is the end of it.  I think that the new #1 team will be Oklahoma with Florida at a close #2 spot.  The big strength that the Sooners have is that they jump on teams early. This will not be the case against a very good Florida team. One other note is that whichever QB leads their team to victory should be the Heisman trophy winner.  This will not be the case against a very good Florida team.  It should be a great national title game and a great end to the college football season.