Week 10 in the NFL did little to change any bodies mind about any team.  No up-sets, and no big shockers.  The top story might be Tennessee’s march towards perfection.  With nine wins already, they have all but guaranteed themselves a ply-off berth and more than likely a first round bye.  The Jets continue their impressive start with another win which sets up a huge Thursday night game against New England who also won on Sunday.  Beating a floundering Buffalo team that started hot and had play-off hopes which are quickly going up in smoke.  Miami posted another win, bettering their record to 5-4.  With such an awful start, I don’t think anyone predicted a winning record at this point in the season for the fish.  The Colts also got back on track, beating a Steelers team that has been riddled with injuries.  Even with the win, it is highly unlikely that the Colts will win their division because of the undefeated Titans.  The NFC south has its own Cinderella story with he Atlanta Falcons winning their sixth game.  After such a debacle last season, I didn’t think that they could pull it together in just one season.  They still should come in third to the Bucs and the Panthers in the division.

The Bucs are not as good as I hoped they were, but they at least showed enough self respect to not let the Chiefs beat them.  Everybody knows how hard it is to win on any given Sunday in this league.  It has always been difficult to win at Arrowhead Stadium, especially for a visiting team that doesn’t play there very often.  The Chiefs jumped out to an early 14-0 lead, taking advantage of a total of 4 turnovers by the Bucs.  Just a few minutes before half-time, the Chiefs led 24-3 before a 97 yard kick-off return for a score.  It was an uneventful third quarter, and the Bucs held KC to only three points in the fourth.  With only 19 seconds the Bucs converted a two pointer to tie the game and eventually went on to win the game on a Mat Bryant field goal in over-time.  They must play better if they want to go anywhere in the playoffs if they even get there.  They get a rest with the bye week the weekend.

It’s always fun to watch a team or player that you don’t like get beat to a pulp.  Such is the case in the stomping that the Giants laid down on Dallas this past Sunday.  If you think that it’s just a quarterback that the Cowboys need, that would be overly optimistic thinking.  Although the play from the quarterback position has been lacking and unproductive, the rest of the teams faults have been exposed.  The defense has all but given up, and I predict a couple more losses and TO will come out of his shell.  With all the problems that the Cowboys have had, I would have to admit that that Romo guy they have is pretty good if he could hide them so well.  And I am not a Tony Romo fan.

The World Series.  It is a dream for all young baseball players, a dream that goes unrealized for almost everyone of them.  The Rays did something that nobody thought was possible, and I include the Rays players and management too, they made it to the series.  In only their tenth year of existence, and what makes it even more remarkable, is the fact that they finished dead last every other year.  Until this year, 2008, the magic year when everything finally came together.  Think about this- the Cubs have not gone to a series in 50 years or so and have not won a championship in over a hundred years.  This will be the third time in 11 years that an expansion team from Florida plays for the title.  Just something to think about.  Also another thing that makes this series compelling is the match-up.  Not just the players on the field, but the cities they represent.  Once again Tampa has to go through a Philly team to win the championship.  In 2003 the Bucs had to beat the eagles to go to the superbowl and the next year the Lightning had to beat the Flyers to go to the Stanley Cup finals.  It almost seems like destiny that the rays will have to beat the Phillies for their championship.  Which will happen.

I thought that it was all hype.  There was no way that HDTV was as good as everybody was saying.  That was my thinking last week.  Before my new best friend, the cable guy, hooked up my new HD receiver.  I didn’t think that it would make such a difference, but I really don’t think that I can ever go back to the way it was.  Sorry regular t.v, no disrespect, but your time is over.  The new king of watching sports is HD.  I say new king, because I didn’t jump on the band wagon sooner.  Oh, all the games I’ve missed being so naive.  I could have watched the Gators trounce the Ohio Buckeyes in the championship two years ago.  I could have watched the miracle Giants beat the Patriots last year in the Super Bowl.  It is 100 percent better in HD.  I can see the sweat and dirt and grime and feel like I’m on the field.  Even NASCAR looks exciting.  It would have even made the Olympics bearable.  It would  have been glorious.  It should have been glorious, but I was stubborn.  After all, why should I get a new fancy television when the one I bought ten years ago was still working?  It didn’t make any sense.  I was wrong.  Big time.  I know that now and I take full responsibility for my actions.  Now, that I’ve forgiven myself and moved on; let the MLB playoffs start, let the NFL continue and hockey season can’t get here soon enough.  All hail HDTV!

Another week, another great football weekend.  After a disappointing loss to Tampa, the Falcons take care of the Chiefs.  The Chiefs better be careful, a 0-16 season might be on the horizon.  Buffalo wins another close game, beating the Raiders who are not looking great in this young season.  Tampa gets it’s second win in a row as they take care of the Bears in overtime.  Carolina beat Minnesota without too much trouble and the lowly Miami Dolphins beat up on the New England Patriots, handing the Pats their first regular season loss in 21 games.  The New York football Giants and the Titans both roll to three wins a piece.  I think the Giants want another ring.  Jacksonville and Seattle each get their first wins of the season and upstart Arizona gets a reality check, losing to Washington.  And the experiment in New York seems to be struggling as Favre loses big to the Chargers on Monday night.  There seems to be a lot of parody this season and other than Dallas and the Giants, there are no real standouts yet.  But anything can happen, that’s why they play the games.

The second week of my favorite time of year has passed, and again it was a good week of football.  There were some great games and a couple not so great games.  There were also some good individual efforts.  Arron Rodgers seems to be stepping into his role as starter in Green Bay.  Those are some pretty big shoes to fill son.  Let’s just hope that we don’t see another young player run out of town for not being up to snuff with a Hall of Famer- Brian Greise comes to mind.  The Giants are making a bid for a repeat, and after a slow start, they beat up on the Rams pretty good.  Indy squeaked out a win to get themselves to .500.  Chicago had a good chance to take care of the Panthers and let it slip away.  C’mon Bears!  Buffalo made it two in a row by beating Jacksonville.  I’m afraid it might be a long year for Seattle; their window of opportunity may be closing for good as they lost their second in a row.  This time it was in overtime to the Niners.  Other winners were Tampa, New England and Arizona who jumped all over Miami.  A disappointed Chargers team needs to look ahead and put the bad “call” behind them.  They still have plenty of time to put this season back together.  Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the Browns.  They should start practicing their short game for the off-season.

For my money, I think that college football is better than the NFL.  First of all, it’s way more exciting.  From the tailgating to the painted up fans, it blows the NFL out of the water.  You can’t have the excitement and rivalry that you have in the college game in the pros.  There just isn’t enough history and enthusiasm.  Even new rivalries like The University of South Florida playing cross state rivals The University of Central Florida is hyped up so much, you might as well be watching the Super Bowl.  And these two teams have only played three or four times in the last eight years.  It can’t be matched.  These kids playing and watching in the stands live and die by their respective schools.  It is more than a game to them and you can feel it in the stands.  Sure, as a Buccaneers fan, I can’t stand certain teams, like the Panthers and the Giants and pretty much the entire NFC North division, but it’s not even close to how much a West Virginia fan hates Pitt.  Not even close.  I mean, thiose fans in Morgontown light couches on fire for pete’s sake.  COUCHES!  that’s not normal or sane.  It’s fandom.

The first week of the NFL season has come and gone, and it was pretty good.  Except for the fact that the Bucs can’t ever seem to get in sync by the first week of the season.  Ever.  Looks like Jeff Garcia will be watching from the sidelines as Brian Greise gives it another shot in Tampa.  This is his second go round with the Bucs, and besides a season ending injury back in the 2005 season, he did pretty well the first time.  Leading the team to a 5-1 record before the knee injury.  Hopefully he can spark a little offense this week against the Atlanta Falcons, who had a great opening week win over the lowly Lions.  There were also a couple of other things that happened this week.  Farve got his first win in the other green uniform with the Jets down in Miami.  Cleveland and Seattle both looked awful, and Tom Brady got knocked out for the season in the Pat’s win over the Chiefs, I hope he has good health insurance.  We’ll see how great ofa coach that cheater up in New England really is.  Hope they have a plan.  But the worst moment of the weekend was when the Carolina Panthers made their last second comeback in San Diego.  That was a game they had no business winning.  I had already marked it as a loss before the season began.  Oh well, they could still lose the next fifteen games in a row.  A guy can dream can’t he?  Anyway, it’s good to have football back on Sundays, and let’s enjoy the next 15 weeks.

Football season is finally here.  It starts this Thursday.  It seems like an eternity between the time the Superbowl ends and the regular season starts.  The pro-bowl and the pre-season don’t count, either.  This is the time when all the work spent during the off-season is either going to pay off, or another huge disappointments will befall the city of your choice.  Will there be another unlikely giant killer (pun intended) like the Giants of New York from last season?  Could it possibly happen again?  And is there a team that is as daunting as the Patriots were last year?  I don’t think that they could be as good as they were last season, in fact I don’t see any team going undefeated this year.  I would almost say that it was impossible, although I didn’t think that the Pat’s could do what they did last season.  Oh, to be so close and not be able to finish.  I still smile at the thought of the hail-mary like pass being snagged from mid air in front of the Pat’s cornerback, the gasps of millions of New England fans echoing across the country.  It was great.  Every time I see the re-play on ESPN,  it brings joy to my heart.  Lets just hope that it does happen to be another one of those great NFL seasons that will have at least one moment that will be talked about for years to come.