It's Football Time
by Jody Jamieson
3/9/2008
 
It's finally around the corner.
 
No more will we have to convince ourselves that the pre-season is must see exciting viewing. No longer will we have to question our sanity as we try to put together our respective teams final 53 man roster. Not for a long time will we play Madden so much that we forget what real football is actually like.
 
Yes ladies and gentlemen. Sunday was the last Sunday till February that you actually have to consider what you might do with your day of rest.
 
This time last year it was Joey Harrington picking out purple jerseys with precision in Minnesota, the beginning of Spy Gate and the rebirth of Randy Moss at the Meadowlands, the Eagles special teams meltdown at Lambeau, and a shootout in Dallas between the Giants and Cowboys.
 
By the very early hours of Tuesday we will have witnessed the post-Strahan Giants begin their defense of the Championship, the dawn of a new quarterbacking era in Green Bay, and thus the media circus surrounding Brett Farve's debut in Jet's green. We will see all the rookies who got drafted in the 90s (or so it feels like) as they take their bow in the NFL. We will rejoice if our teams win on opening day, and thus call for the firing of managers, co-ordinators and General Managers if our teams blow it over the weekend.
 
As much as I hate the pre-season, I can't help but love the build up to a new season and the optimism that comes with it. The fact is that for those teams who missed the play-offs last year it's been a full 8 months since they played a competitive match. For that reason optimism can go through the roof. From Jon Kitna talking of 10 Lion wins, to Mike Wilbon on Pardon The Interruption predicting 7 wins from the Dolphins, there's nothing quite like a long off-season to make you think anything is possible.
 
Sometimes the anticipation will be much better than the outcome. In August last year, if you followed the Miami Dolphins, the New York Mets or Derby County, things didn't really turn out they way you'd have hoped over the coming months. But that being said if you supported the New York Giants, the Colorado Rockies or Hull City, you wouldn't have believed what the Sporting Gods had just around the corner for you.
 
After last year every "borderline" team is feeling that little bit more confident that this could be their year after the Giants went from 0-2 and looking like 0-3 against the Redskins, to World Champions. If you support any potential 8 or 9 win team, realistically a nice play-off win would be a great achievement. But after the Giants shocked the World and went all the way I know what you're thinking. "Why can't that be us?"
 
And why not? This is the era of the Salary Cap. The era of "Any Given Sunday." The era of 16-0 not winning a Championship.
 
I can't wait for Thursday, and I can't wait for the football season and all it's glory. I can't wait for heroes to be made. I can't wait for 4th quarter meldowns, and I can't wait for snow at Lambeau. I can't wait for the first win. I can't wait for the first game winning field goal as time expires, and I can't wait for the late goaline stand on 4th down that puts another one in the books.
 
I just can't wait.
 
It's football time.