Bring On Football Season

Anybody else out there catch at least five preseason NFL games already? Maybe you're not as reliant on the pigskin as I, but it is certainly time to strap on the helmets. I mention this obvious thought to distract Chicago baseball fans from what appears to be a postseasonless October. If southsiders are wondering why they'll fall 1 to 3 games short at the end of the season, they can ask Pods how you get picked off third with 1st and 3rd and one dead in Seattle, or you can ask him why he doesn't yet know how to field a baseball against the wall. Either way, it doesn't matter because the bullpen is no longer reliable and the team can't hit. Rios is doing nothing yet, while Thome/Konerko/Dye look lost.

The Cubs have officially run out of live bodies, but that's ok because Zambrano admits that he's lazy. I wish I could get paid $91M to be lazy. I guess when Steve Stone said that a few years back he was just bitter at the organization. Yeah right. I have to say that I fell sorry for the northsiders being 5 games back because no one should be subjected to watching that outfield on a nightly basis (let alone for two more years). You have to love Wells and Gorzelanny picking up the slack in the starting rotation. The bottom line is that both teams don't score enough runs.

Now that we've established why football season will be a welcome addition to this area, let us tackle some of the topics from game numero uno. Cutler looked like balls. He's not a bad quarterback, he just plays one on tv in the preseason. He made dumb decisions and looked like he was trying to prove why he doesn't need good receivers. Cutler would be wise to use the preseason as a way to gauge just how much he needs to dial back his game because of the talent around him. Olsen and Forte will help once they join him on the field. But Jay, if you're reading this, please don't blame Devin Hester for a wounded duck you throw late down the sideline. Let me get this straight Jay: you expected a return man playing receiver who couldn't play DB at Miami, excuse me The U, couldn't play DB in Chicago, and can't read or write at a high school level to come back and break that play up? That's not football, that's a second city act.

Outside of Jay/Devin antics, the first team defense played better. Al Afalava should earn the starting safety job. I don't care where he's from, what round he was drafted in, or how many A's are in his name. He made plays out on the field. If you know how to fall down on the ground, create a pile, and trip people, you can make more of an impact on the Bears defense than Mark Anderson.

In closing, some other weekend sports observations: Stafford and Sanchez should and will start their season openers, Kyle Orton embarrassed himself and his family Friday night, Oakland needs two new stadiums, Tiger apparently is human after all, Y.E. won that golf tournament it wasn't given to him, Vince Young might just stay in the NFL, the Mike Vick story will be seen on Spike TV sometime over the next year, and that will be the most you hear from Vick during that time. Get your Chicago Blackhawks tickets today my friends before they sell out.

Hey Mr. Fantasy

I'm not interested in Comcast suing me over their fantasy reality check theme, so I'm changing the title to the best Traffic song. If you need a reason to get excited about preseason football, watch the rookies and the backups. If you don't, I will be. So when you're drafting Matt Jones and Nate Burleson, I'll be snagging Austin Collie and Glen Coffee. It isn't about checking the stats after the game, it is seeing which backs hit the holes hard, which receivers can get separation (not reparations), and which quarterbacks have enough accuracy to play catch with Fido. I finally snagged a few fantasy football magazines this weekend. Buy those for the concepts and trends, but please don't use their rankings sheet (unless you're in my league then use them to the exact numerical system). I doubt they'd still think Beanie Wells will be rookie of the year when he misses the first two weeks of camp. These publications love Felix Jones and TJ Duckett. A random pair I know, but don't ask me why. Some things I noticed over the weekend were the Bengals passing attack getting back into gear, Rashard Mendenhall looking like a potential grad assistant for U of I, and the Broncos potentially being the worst team in the league. Two tips for people with drafts coming up: draft a backup QB that has a favorable matchup during the off week of your starter and give a slight upgrade to teams with favorable playoff schedules like Arizona, Houston, Indy, and NO.