It’s finally here.  It seems like college football season is so short but always so much fun.  It’s one of those sports that you can watch regardless of whether you like either team or not and that’s not something I can say about every sport.  Mets vs Nationals?  Hate both of them and hate watching both even more.
This Thursday the season kicks off with Pittsburgh playing at UTAH in what will be a very good game.  Pitt comes in highly ranked and looking for some form of revenge after Utah smoked them in a couple bowl games.  Utah is always well prepared and riding him knowing that they will be in the PAC 10 very soon for sports. 
On Saturday, Oregon St plays TCU and LSU plays North Carolina in a battle of ranked teams.  Carolina could be in some serious trouble with the NCAA as they are getting really looked into right now for several various reasons.
Monday though is the game that we all want to see.  Boise St goes on the road and takes on Virginia Tech.  Boise is notorious for their preparation and planning.  They know how important this game is to the overall chances of them getting into another BCS game.  They come into this game with the highest ranking the school has ever had at #3 and will have their hands full with the Hokies.  Virginia Tech will not be taking them lightly and will be at full strength.  This will be a great game.

Every year I write this and I’m getting really sick of it.  SHRINK or GET RID OF THE PRESEASON. 

In college football you just practice against your own team and then the games begin.  No practice games at all, just practice and then the games.  But for professional players making millions of dollars a year apparently they need 4 full weeks of practice games to get them ready for a 16 week season?  Makes no sense to me until you start to equate the money into the whole deal. 

Pro football players aren’t paid for the preseason games technically but get paid for each game that is actually played for which they are on the roster.  The preseason is a different story and it is no wonder that the best guys simply don’t play as much because their is just too much to lose by playing your best guys.  Now I hear that an 18 game schedule is pretty much a done deal and I get even more amazed.

Sure the 18 game schedule will take away a couple preseason games but now that makes football season nearly 6 months.  That’s a long time and while I love it I don’t love what it does to the history of the game.  Imagine being a baseball player who held records based on the 154 game season only to have them broken by someone because they got to play in 8 more games a year.  That would drive me crazy and now that is what football is about to do.  We are messing with the history of the game and not in a good way.  Rushing records will be broken, passing records, sack records…everything will be broken as a result.  Let’s even look at the flip side…more injuries, even shorter careers (only at 2.5 as it is) and teams that are out of the playoffs by mid season now have to get hammered for an additional 2 weeks. 

I wish they would just keep it as is but take away the preseason.  Let teams practice for an additional 2 weeks  to get ready but start the games and save some careers.

This guy is amazing.  I actually enjoyed watching his speech but I’d handle things a different way if I were Favre.  Instead of handling it one year at a time i’d handle it the complete opposite. I would announce that I am going to keep playing for 3-4 more years but instead he went with “i’m for sure done after this year”.  We’ve all heard that so many times that we look at him now like our alcoholic or drug addicted friends who just can’t quit.  Favre is a football playeraholic and can’t get away from the game and when he actually walks away I’ll be shocked.  I can’t believe that since 2002 we have had this going on.  Maybe Lebron and Favre could get together for a show each year because it would save ESPN some time and money. 

I believe 3 years ago I blogged about Favre and how over reported his life is in the off season and it still is amazing to watch.  Through it all I’m actually glad he is back.  It’s great for the NFL and the Vikings and he is all that is good about professional football.

Favre is apparently going to retire again.  I don’t know what to believe with this guy.  With training camp just underway it seemed like any day we would be hearing about Brett Favre and how he is almost ready to decide.  After all, he typically doesn’t decide until camp is over so he can miss all the fun those guys seem to have.  Instead the word on the street is that he is officially retiring for good this time.

It seems strange that he would retire now given the fact that the Vikings are going to be really good and he has some solid weapons behind him.  This team would’ve given him another good chance to get back to a super bowl for his last hurrah.  He has the best running back in the game with one of the best wide receivers in Sydney Rice playing for a city that wants a winner. 

What’s strange is that I’ve been wrong every single time I’ve predicted the man’s behavior.  In situations where it looks like he should retire he doesn’t and vice versa.  He showed in New York that he should be done but he clearly showed last year that he can still play.  Maybe that’s why he’s walking away, he got done proving idiot doubters like myself wrong.