Soon it will be football day...

My favorite day of the year is the opening Sunday of football. Alas, the Vikes don't even play until Monday at 6:00 central. I'll be teaching from 5:00-8:00 (and it's tough to cancel the first day of class), followed by a half-hour commute home. If the antenna and VCR all work together.... This is roughly the 435th time I've whined about this. I will whine about this roughly 678 more times. Anyway, a few football thoughts.

My favorite "what if": The Miami Dolphins
We all know that when the last undefeated team of each season loses, the '72 Dolphins celebrate. But what would happen if the last team to lose is...the Miami Dolphins! I would LOVE to see the Dolphins start out 10-0 sometime and see what the old-timers do. I can't even begin to describe how excited I am that such an occurance COULD happen.

One of the top 32 starting QBs in the NFL
A peeve: how easily and thoughtlessly people throw out things like "he's one of the top 3 players in the league" or "he's one of the top 5 QBs in the league" and all that without actually giving it some thought. Often, when you do think about the comment briefly, you realize the claim is totally outrageous. Now, Peter King does this ALL THE TIME, but I've also read columns in which he explores, for example, how many QBs he'd take over Drew Brees. That's good. Don't be lazy: if you're going to say "he's a top 3 running back" or whatever, give it some thought and make sure there aren't 3 other RBs you'd take over whoever you're talking about. Otherwise we've got 10 "Top 5" players at any given time.

Vikings
All I can really predict for the 2006 Vikings is this: they will go between 5-11 and 11-5. I'm not sure they have more than 11 wins in them, and I'm pretty sure aren't worse than 5 wins. Nothing in between will suprise me. New coach, new offensive system, new defensive system...I have no idea. All I can do is approach every season hoping this is the one where I'll see the beloved Purple win a Super Bowl.

Anxiety
Every year I dread the possibility of seeing the Packers win a Super Bowl. If I had to witness the Packers win a 13th championship before the Vikes win their first...well, that would be difficult to stomach. Plus I despise Favre. I watch Packer playoff games with as much nervousness as I watch any Viking game. This season, I don't fear the Packers winning the Super Bowl. I do fear Favre throwing his 420th and 421st TD pass. But there's also something to be hopeful for: interception number 277 and 278. During the season, each week I will give a Favre tally at this blog. Favre has 396 TDs and 255 INTs--so he's 24 away from the TD record and 22 from the INT record. Which will he break? Both? Then which first? What sort of odds are we looking at here? And should I just start a separate anti-Favre blog to keep the venom off this one?