5 Big Things

With all the major sporting events this year the start of the National Football League and all the off season moves have been a little overshadowed. With the season just under a week away, there is still time to get all caught up on the five biggest story lines going into the season that I am looking forward to.

1. Fantasy Football
Fantasy football has taken over the NFL. With over 29 million people playing fantasy football and spending almost nine hours a week online checking their teams, adjusting rosters, picking up and dropping players and proposing trades. Many fans do not even have favourite teams anymore, they have their favourite player as long as he is on their roster. NFL players now get cheered for their performance based on how many fantasy points they have accumulated. Even the NFL players are now involved in fantasy football. Last season, their was a youtube video of some Washington Redskins teammates sitting around and drafting their teams. This season, Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew will publish a fantasy football column every week at Sports Illustrated.com. His first order of business was to draft a team and of course, made some big trades to be able to draft himself. At least now he can only blame himself for losing, unlike the rest of us.

2. QB Moves - McNabb, Kolb, Jason Campbell, Matt Leinart
The quarterback position is so important in the National Football League. You can look back at the franchises that won Super Bowl’s and almost all of them had a super star under center. Whether it was the Steelers and Cowboys in the 70’s with Terry Bradshaw and Roger Staubach, the 80’s 49ers with Joe Montana or Cowboys with Troy Aikman, and most recently the Colts with Peyton Manning or the Patriots with Tom Brady. So, when big name quarterbacks moved around this off season, it opened the door for a couple of new teams to challenge for the Lombardi trophy. The biggest name to move was former Philadelphia Eagle Donovan McNabb, who is now a Washington Redskin. This is not only news because it gives the Redskins a experienced quarterback, but it was also a trade within their division. Taking over for McNabb in Philadelphia is Kevin Kolb. The fourth year quarterback has only started in 2 games in his previous years, so although those two games last season where good, it will interesting to see if he can keep it up for 16 games and take the Eagles back to the playoffs. Since McNabb moved to Washington, their starter – Jason Campbell needed to find a new home. He has packed his bags and moved to Oakland. The Raiders have been in need of a serviceable quarterback for the past 20 years, so hopefully Campbell can give them something to cheer about. One franchise (unfortunately, not the Minnesota Vikings), the Arizona Cardinals had their quarterback retire. Kurt Warner decided to hang up the cleats and has been replaced by Matt Leinart. The “pretty boy” from USC in his fifth season will finally get the ball to himself. Every year, he has gone into training camp as the starter, only to lose the job. This season, without much competition behind him, he should be able to blossom. Although, these were the big moves, some other teams did get new pivots. The Browns acquired Jake Delhomme from the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers then replaced Delhomme with young Matt Moore.

3. Labour Issues - 18 game schedule, concussions, salary cap, draft age (rookie salary cap)
Although, this is not exactly an issue for this season, it will begin to dominate the headlines. The NFL and NFL players association need to agree on a new labour agreement before next season, so there is a next season. Some of the big questions that need to be agreed upon are a salary cap and especially a rookie salary cap. The veterans are unhappy each year when first round draft picks become the highest paid players in the league without playing a snap. There are also health concerns, such as what an expanded 18 game schedule (instead of the current 16) would do to a players body and how they would be compensated for those extra games. Also, head injuries have become more common and a bigger concern for players. In the light of some recent deaths of ex-NFL players, and the on-going study of their brains has shown that playing football causes long-term damage. The NFL and its players need to address how to help the current players from doing damage to themselves and how to assist the retired players if they have sustained long-term damage. Unfortunately, this will be a topic many casual fans (those playing fantasy football) won’t care too deeply about until it affects them next September.

4. NFC East - could all the teams go 8-8 or better?
In the NFL getting to the playoffs is the goal and usually 9 wins will get you there. Once you are in the playoffs anything can happen. For the best division in football, nine wins will probably not do the trick this season. The Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins all have the talent to make the playoffs and contend for the Super Bowl. Every conference game will be an event this season. Whether it is the Eagles welcoming back McNabb, the Cowboys going into the New Meadowlands for the first time or the Cowboys trying to go to the Super Bowl in their own stadium, it should be the game of the week every time they hook up.

5. How will the players act this year? (arrests, twitter)
As we have seen, not all the news is on the field this year. Between the potential labour stoppage and fantasy football, just as much is happening off the field as on. The other topics to be on the look out for are how players are getting into trouble. Whether it is DUI, drug possession or assault, NFL players seem to be getting themselves in hot water constantly. Popular football blog site profootballtalk.com even has a “days since last arrest” counter on their website. Since commissioner Roger Goodell has been notoriously tough on offenders, suspending players for almost every incident, it is especially important for players to keep their noses clean. One player who actively searches out fines is Chad OchoCinco of the Cincinnati Bengals. OchoCinco was recently fined $25 000 for tweeting during a pre-season game. Many NFL players use the popular social networking site Twitter to communicate with fans, but the last thing coaches and fans need is a player so distracted with what to tweet next that they cannot concentrate while on the field.