Talking NFL

Today is the first day of December football for the NFL.  This year, we are blessed with five weekends of pigskin glory during the final month of the regular season.  December football is football at it’s finest - at it’s most glorious.  Teams enter the home stretch determined to qualify for the post-season “Tournament” in a quest for the chance to hoist the Lombardi Trophy in triumph.

Today, we can choose from a simply fantastic sampling of pivotal games.  It could possibly go down in history as one of the greatest weekends in the history of professional football (well, probably not, but let’s not mess with the dream right now…).

Realize that right now, fans across the country are waking with a myriad of thoughts running throughout their minds:

- Jaguars fans are looking at a very real chance to put an end to the dominance of the Colts in the AFC South, and bring their team to the forefront of the playoff race (and national media attention).

- Likewise, long suffering Vikings fans suddenly have a red-hot team that could take down the struggling Lions and place them in serious Wild-Card contention in the NFC.

- On the other side, Giants fans are wondering which version of Eli Manning will show up in a snowy and sleeting Soldier field stadium when they take on the disappointing Bears.  

- Chicago won’t be the only place where weather is a factor.  A wintry mix (as the Weather Channel likes to call it) is in store for Pittsburgh as well.  Pouring rain is predicted in Kansas City, Washington, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Carolina.  Perfect.  Football in the elements just as God intended (and fie on you Minnesota, for playing in a dome)!

- After an 0-4 start, Saints fans have hope again at 5-6 as they take on the surprising Bucs, who lead the NFC South.

- Right now Dolphins fans are waking to perhaps their best chance to avoid historic infamy.  Jets fans awaken to the embarrassment of being underdogs to a winless team.  (Don’t laugh, but this one could be the most entertaining game of the lot…)

- Browns fans are watching their team fight for just their 2nd playoff birth since the franchise was reborn in 1999.  They face the 5-6 Cardinals, who are clinging to hopes of their first postseason since 1998.

- And in Washington, Redskins fans are still struggling with grief after losing one of their most popular players.  Our thoughts and prayers are with you and the Taylor family.

December brings with it a gamut of emotions, a full year’s worth of bad weather, and the last hopes and dreams of an NFL season.  Some will be fulfilled.  Some will be crushed.  Come New Year’s Eve, twelve teams will be bound for the playoffs, and the rest will have eight months to figure out what went wrong.

(Crouches down, sniffs the air)

God, I love this sport!

NFL, December, regular season, bad weather, pigskin love sonnet