Here comes football.
Here come Sundays, when we get to chop block our cares and stiff-arm our worries, when grandfathers and grandmothers, and middle-aged men and women, children and grandchildren in tow, can put on their old 56 Giants jerseys or their even older 12 Namath jerseys and hop merrily into a time machine that transports them back to their youth.
Football can do that for us. Football can do that for us on Sundays, on Sunday nights, on Thursday nights, on Monday nights. You can be an attorney, a doctor, a teacher, doesn’t matter, you can be a raving, screaming maniac and no one will say a word because there are 50,000, sometimes 100,000 raving, screaming maniacs cheering wildly for their hometown team right along with you.
Because there are only 16 of these raucous three-hour reunions, every game feels like Game 7 of the World Series.
You want rivalries? The NFL gives you Jets-Patriots, Giants-Eagles, Steelers-Ravens, Bears-Packers. And on this Christmas Eve, Jets-Giants.
You want characters? The NFL gives you Rex Ryan, insufferable windbag to some, entertaining breath of fresh air to others.
You want pretty boy quarterbacks? The NFL gives you Tom Brady and Mark Sanchez.
You want marquee? The NFL gives you Peyton Manning.
You want ferociousness? The NFL gives you Ndamukong Suh.
You want comeback redemption stories? The NFL gives you Michael Vick and Plaxico Burress.
You want bad boys? The NFL gives you James Harrison and Albert Haynesworth and Ben Roethlisberger and Kenny Britt.
You want divas? The NFL gives you Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco.
You can sit inside an historic place named Lambeau Field, whose sidelines
Vince Lombardi roamed, and cover your head with a cheesehead and watch as Aaron Rodgers fills the crisp air with spirals and cheer your defending-champion Green Bay Packers eating a brat.
You can sit inside Jerry Jones’ palace and wonder if Tony Romo will ever take your team to the Super Bowl while ogling the world famous Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
You can sit inside a sea of Black and Gold and twirl a Terrible Towel and make Joe Flacco and the Baltimore Ravens wish they were anywhere but Heinz Field playing your Pittsburgh Stillers.
You can sit inside the Silverdome and watch in awe as Calvin Johnson skies high for a missile launched by your ascending young quarterback and contribute to a roar that signifies the revival of your Detroit Lions.
You can freeze your butt off inside Gillette Stadium and lose your voice screaming at Rex Ryan and those cocky Jets and feel warm all over as Tom Brady throws another touchdown pass that serves them right and shuts them up.
You can help that guy wearing that white fireman hat atop somebody’s shoulders fill MetLife Stadium with the sweet sound of J-E-T-S JETS, JETS, JETS.
You can sit inside that same stadium and make Michael Vick and his so-called “Dream Team” feel as though they are trapped inside a Big Blue nightmare when you exhort Justin Tuck with thunderous chants of Dee-fense, Dee-fense.
You can sing Who Dat? for your Saints, or Who Dey? for your Bengals.
Thirty-two teams, 32 dreams. In a sport where parity gives even the most downtrodden hope into December. Here’s how it all unfolds:
AFC EAST
1. NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
Coach: Bill Belichick
2011 projection: 12-4
2010 record: 14-2
Over/under wins: 11 1/2
Odds to win Super Bowl: 6-1
Serby Says: Hard to believe Belichick and Brady haven’t won a Super Bowl in seven seasons. But that defense has been infused with youth thanks to a plethora of high draft choices, and Brady has a healthy Wes Welker and an ex-reality show host named Chad Ochocinco and a promising second year WR in Taylor Price and a pair of red-zone targets in TEs Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski. Not to mention a magnificent obsession with showing Rex Ryan he prepares every bit as much as Peyton Manning does, and undoubtedly thinks as little of Antonio Cromartie as Cromartie thinks of him.
There are young legs in the backfield now to help BenJarvus Green-Ellis and old reliable Kevin Faulk, and stud guard Logan Mankins returns happy as a clam with his new contract as a ruthless convoy. If Belichick can light a fire under Albert Haynesworth when he shifts to a 4-3, and if DEs Andre Carter and Shaun Ellis, or Mark Anderson, can supply some much-needed pass rush, look out. CB Devin McCourty is a rising star.
Hate to do this to Jets fans, but since Belichick resigned as HC of the NYJ, he has a 126-50 record with three Super Bowl championships. The four Jets head coaches over that span own a 91-85 record. Inspiration will come from the fact that the Pats have dedicated the season to the late Myra Kraft — wife of the classy, courageous owner — who passed away just before the lockout ended.
Drew’s Fantasy Tracker: Brady still elite, but expect slight decline. Welker should be similar to disappointing 2010. At tight end, we like Gronkowski better than Hernandez.
2. NEW YORK JETS
Coach: Rex Ryan
2011 projection: 10-6
2010 record: 11-5
Over/under wins: 9 1/2
Odds to win Super Bowl: 12-1
Serby Says: It really is amazing that the Jets have been to back-to-back AFC Championship games with a rookie and second-year quarterback (not to mention rookie and second-year head coach). That tells you everything you need to know about the defense and special teams.
The blueprint has Mark Sanchez morphing into Super Sanchise and winning the division title and making sure that the next AFC Championship Game is played at MetLife Stadium. But while Sanchez assuredly will be better, while the defense will be better with another year in the same system, it is not out of the question that Rex Ryan is again counting his chickens before they hatch.
For instance, it is asking an awful lot of a 34-year-old receiver who hasn’t played football in three years, who spent 21 months in prison and just got out on June 6, to snap his fingers and be a feared target in the red zone again, much less last the entire season. There have been warning signs already — a sprained ankle right away, a tweak of the back – that remind you that this Great Plaxico Burress Experiment is a tremendous gamble. What happens when the real bullets start flying? Will he be able to deal with the physicality of much younger defenders? Will he have the conditioning necessary to find another gear with the game on the line in the fourth quarter? And if the answers to those questions turn out to be no, then what?
And can we be certain Shonn Greene can be the lead dog? Can Jeremy Kerley, the rookie returner, replace Brad Smith? Just can’t see a tuxedoed Rex turning to Obama asking, “Pass the foie gras please, Mr. President?”
Drew’s Fantasy Tracker: Expect Greene to be best backfield option. Sanchez is worthy of backup status. Santonio Holmes is a solid WR2. Expect receiving yards from Mason and TDs from Burress.
3. MIAMI DOLPHINS
Coach: Tony Sparano
2011 projection: 8-8
2010 record: 8-8
Over/under wins: 7 1/2
Odds to win Super Bowl: 45-1
Serby Says: Bill Parcells couldn’t resist left tackle Jake Long with the first overall pick of the 2008 draft. He bypassed Matt Ryan because he figured Chad Henne was a better value in the second round. One problem: Henne has been nothing close to a franchise quarterback, and this is his last chance to rise above the mediocrity only because the Fish didn’t pull the trigger on a Kyle Orton trade. Henne had a year jump on Mark Sanchez and has developed more slowly. The good news is he has been given more play-calling freedom.
This very well could be the last chance for the regime Tuna imported as well: Tony Sparano (over someone named Rex Ryan) and Jeff Ireland. Henne still doesn’t have a feared wide receiver option opposite Brandon
Marshall, and the Ronnie and Ricky Show has given way to Reggie Bush and rookie Daniel Thomas. Hey guys, LeBron has plenty of free time on his hands, was a pass-catching terror in high school . . . let’s see Darrelle Revis try to stop The King!
Even with Long, the offensive line doesn’t look capable of blowing defenders into Biscayne Bay, so you tell me how Bush plans on staying on the field as an every-down back.
The defense Tuna helped build will make the Fish a tough out: pass-rushing maniac Cameron Wake, the return of Jason (I Hate Jets Fans Again) Taylor, and – haven’t you heard? — the NFL’s best cornerback tandem in Vontae Davis and Sean Smith. ILB Kevin Burnett will help defend opposing tight ends better than Channing Crowder.
Disenchanted Dolfans haven’t witnessed their team win a playoff game since 2000, around the time Nevin Shapiro was beginning his shameless career.
Drew’s Fantasy Tracker: Rookie Thomas should be solid RB3, Bush a good fourth. Avoid Marshall, unless he slips into the eighth or ninth round.
4. BUFFALO BILLS
Coach: Chan Gailey
2011 projection: 3-13
2010 record: 4-12
Over/under wins: 5 1/2
Odds to win Super Bowl: 125-1
Serby Says: Oh, how the good folks of Buffalo would kill for a moment such as Scott Norwood lining up for a game-winning 47-yard field goal in the Super Bowl. Because Ralph Wilson has seen his franchise sail Wide Right ever since Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed and Bruce Smith and Marv Levy left.
Fans debating whether Buffalo is a hockey town or a football town over those suicidal Anchor Bar chicken wings were either heartened or doubled over in laughter by new middle linebacker Nick Barnett’s bold guarantee:
“It¹s going to be a great season, don¹t worry.”
Tell me, how can they not worry? That isn’t Tom Brady behind center, it’s Ryan Fitzpatrick, who has to hope that unproven Marcus Easley and/or Donald Jones can replace deep threat Lee Evans, traded to the Ravens in a cost-cutting move, to keep the heat off Stevie Johnson. And that’s the least of Fitzpatrick’s problems. It would have been murder for O.J. Simpson to run behind this offensive line, and Fred Jackson has been forced to look over his shoulder at C.J. Spiller, who isn’t polished enough to supplant him, as much as Chan Gailey seems to want to try. And it’s not as though there is a tight end safety valve/red-zone threat. Maybe Wildcatter Brad Smith can help.
Some hope can be found on defense, where No. 1 draft pick Marcell Dareus will help stud NT Kyle Wllliams prevent foes from running straight through to Niagara Falls, and a bevy of second-year draft choices may be ready to make an impact. But losing MLB Paul Posluszny didn’t help, and if OLB Shawne Merriman can¹t breathe down quarterbacks’ necks, it’s Lights Out for the pass rush. Writes longtime Buffalo News football writer Larry Felser: “The smell of chaos is in the air.”
Drew’s Fantasy Tracker: Jackson is solid RB3. Johnson’s production from last year likely to decline with departure of Evans. The rest is ugly, but at least new uniforms look great.