Football is Officially Back!

Hello sports fans!

Football pre-season has begun! I cannot tell you how exciting it is to actually watch an NFL game, even if it is just the pre-season.

My two NFL fan bases, the Rams and the Colts met up on Saturday night. Not surprising to me, the Rams won and did so by a really nice margin. I had predicted this, because the Rams played more of their potential starters, and the Colts? Well Manning and Freeney didn't play for one, and the rest of their main starters (Wayne, Garcon, Clark, Addai) didn't really get much play either. Also, the Colts are known to lose in the pre-season yet win in the regular season.

I'm glad it was a pre-season game because it is SO hard for me to choose between these 2 teams. Growing up, I had no allegiance to any team because the Cardinals moved to Arizona when I was 4, and the Rams moved to St. Louis when I was just starting high school. So I've always been a football fan first. We have a good family friend, Pat Leahy, who was the kicker for the NY Jets and we followed the Jets in the years he played. Also followed the 49'ers a bit since I have some family who live in the area and Green Bay, because my mom loves the cheesehat. And we had friends in Wisconsin.

In other words, it's hard for me to figure out who my long term favorite team is. The Rams are the first team I really followed regularly because they came to St. Louis at a time where my sports fanaticism peaked. Sure, they were terrible in the beginning. We had to endure Chris "the concussion king" Miller and Tony Banks as QB's. They were rough years but I got to go to live NFL games finally!

I always had been a fan of college football. My family just always had their favorites (Notre Dame, UCLA, Virginia Tech, Mizzou to name a few) and I used to get such a kick out of watching all of the bowl games back when they all were on or around the same day and you could watch several games at the same time (if you had multiple TV's, like my uncle, or went out to a bar/restaurant).

That's where the Peyton Manning love begins. He was so fun to watch at Tennessee (even if I wasn't rooting for the team, he was fun to watch). Then he chose to sign with the Colts, and I was going to college in Indiana at the time. I didn't want to become a Colts fan, because the Rams were my home team.

But as time went on, and I ended up living in Indianapolis for several years, my respect for Manning just kept increasing. And I found myself rooting for the Colts more and more. I then decided that the Rams would be my NFC team, the Colts my AFC team and should they ever meet in a Super Bowl I'd be totally screwed and would have no idea who to root for.

Anyway, that's just a bit of background of me. So the Colts and Rams pre-season game was obviously of strong interest to me.

I'm not worried about the Colts yet because this is what they do in pre-season. The Rams, however, impressed me a lot. Bradford looked sharp, Dahl, Mikell and Hines all got interceptions (okay, it was Painter and Orvlovsky, but still nice to see good defensive plays). Cadillac Williams ran for a TD and Bradford threw a TD pass. And how about Josh Brown kicking a 60 yard field goal? Did Brown's stock just go up in fantasy football after that? I think so.

Okay, it wasn't just the Rams and the Colts this weekend. Cam Newton made his debut in Carolina and looked good, and so did the Brown's Colt McCoy (one of the best football names, BTW) . The Patriots has a field day with the Jags, Mizzou alum Blaine Gabbert didn't have the best outing but there's time still.

Am looking forward to watching how the pre-season unfolds.

There is this thing called baseball going on. The Cardinals are currently 5.5 games behind Milwaukee, and at this point if they want any hope of making the postseason, they have to win the division. That's going to be really tough. Have to hand it to the Brewers, they've been playing spectacular lately. The Cardinals trade of Colby Rasmus for Edwin Jackson isn't panning out so well so far. If Colby were here would the Cards be in a better position? Doubtful. The pitching is a big problem, so I don't think Rasmus is a factor. However, am sort of feeling like the Cards jumped the gun on that trade and we should have gotten more for him.

We're almost to mid-August, so about a month and half of regular season left. Still a lot of games to play and anything can happen. It'll be interesting to see how it all ends.

I think Philly takes the east, the west? Arizona is in the lead at the moment but I think the Giants will pull off another division win. The Yankees and BoSox? One of them will win the division and the other will be the wild card. The Rangers and the Angels race has been fun to watch. I'd like to see the Angels pull it off. The central? Still could go to Detroit, the White Sox or Cleveland. Nice to see a close race to keep the competition going.

And...that was a long sports rant for me, so I'm going to leave it there. Happy NFL is back, disappointed in the Cardinals but still hoping! More in the world of sports soon!

Free Agency Madness

It was certainly interesting to see all of the moves that were quickly made once a deal was made and the NFL was up and running again. On top of that, the trade deadline for MLB was on July 31st and with the NFL back and running free agency signings seemed to happen every hour. I'll admit, it does make me VERY excited about the NFL season this year.

Quick baseball update...so the Cardinals traded Rasmus, which only time will tell if it's a good deal or not. On top of that, Cards signed former Dodger Rafael Furcal. Furcal is certainly an upgrade at shortstop. I was trying to think of the last time the Cardinals really had a strong shortstop. David Eckstein was really more of a 2B guy than a shortstop (though he does get an A+ for effort. There is a reason why he won MVP in the 2006 World Series), and Edgar Renteria was decent. It was probably back to Royce Clayton, who took over after Ozzie Smith retired in the mid 90's. Wow.

We'll see how he does, if he stays healthy, he can be a big benefit to the team through the end of this season. Would be surprised to see him re-signed next year though. Think he is a short term fix.

Cardinals are currently 3 games behind Milwaukee. They are hanging in there, but I'd really like to see the Cards take the division. It's August, so the time to buckle down and really play like you're playoff potential is now. The Cards have a shot at a wild card spot but I'd rather see them win the division. I'll be interesting to see how the rest of the season plays out.

So much craziness in the NFL. Where even to start?

The Colts signed Peyton. I have to admit, I've always had a lot of respect and admiration for Peyton, but he really upped the ante with how he handled his signing. He made it clear he wanted to stay with the Colts but also wanted the team to have the money to keep the team competitive. After signing Manning the team was quick to sign Joseph Addai (who, IMO isn't the best running back out there but he is a great blocker on the field) and get some other players set. The Colts haven't made a ton of moves in free agency, so I'm not sure how they are going to fare this season. The biggest problem is their run defense. They'll have to figure out some way to get the defense together to stay competitive. I still think the Colts are the best in their division, but Houston may end up giving them a good run for the division title.

As for the NFC Worst, I mean West...like a lot of the changes the Rams have made, and think they are definitely positioned to be a better team, though they are going to have a tough time this season. They do not have the easiest schedule. Their home opener is against the Eagles and boy are the Eagles looking scary.

The Rams have signed Walker as a receiver, who I like and just recently signed Cadillac Williams as a potential back-up running back to Steven Jackson, which is a move I also like. Seattle managed to grab Rice, but who is going to throw to him? The Cardinals got Kolb, which means Fitzgerald will have someone to throw to him but the Cards also lost some key players. And the 49er's? Well, they didn't do much. So who do I think has the best chance of winning the NFC West? The Rams. The Rams have amped up their defense and offensive line, they have Bradford coming off of a pretty amazing rookie season, and quite frankly, the competition in the NFC West, as it has been, is still not that high.

There were a lot of interesting moves, of course. Chad "Ochocinco" Johnson is a Patriot. I suppose of all people to possible keep Chad in line, Bill Belichick is the one. They also picked up Albert Haynesworth, 'nuff said. Randy Moss decided to retire (or at least, that's the last I heard). Plaxico signed with the Jets. Personally, I'm just glad he's not in St. Louis. Plax can see if he can find a rhythm with the Jets but he was too much of a gamble. I like that the Rams signed Sims-Walker, he's young and I think he could be great with Bradford.

Other important news? My second favorite NFL player of all time, Marshall Faulk, was entered into the NFL Hall of Fame this weekend. What an amazing and humble athlete he is. He's had an amazing career, and I'll admit, until Marshall came around, I couldn't name a Rams running back. Quarterback? Wide Receiver? Of course. RB? Nope. Faulk made me appreciate the skill and importance of a RB and boy, was he fun to watch. He deserves this honor, so happy for him. He's the first St. Louis Ram to enter the hall (I said St. Louis, not Ram) and I know he's going to be followed by other greats like Bruce, Warner and Holt. I have so much respect for him. Thank you Marshall, for what you brought to the game, and for being an awesome person inside and out.

I'd talk about Tiger Woods golf news but I honestly don't care. Is that bad? Perhaps. I'm anxious for NFL to start and for the Cardinals to gain some games on the Brewers so they can get back into first place.

And that's it for now sports fans. More of my thoughts on the sports world to come soon!