Opening Kick-Off A Holy Day For NFL Football Fans

As we gather on this "holy" day (opening kick off) as the NFL Football season begins I wanted to share these very appropriate words for us Football "Idiots" , and wish you and your teams many happy games!!

Words can not describe how excited we are that football is around the corner. While everyone is sad to see the summer start winding down, that sadness is tempered by the fact that on Saturdays and Sundays for 4 months (5 if you count the NFL playoffs) we can turn on the TV or head to a stadium and revel in the joy that is football.

Football is a uniquely American game - with huge men fighting over precious territory, trying to advance a weird oblong ball. It inspires us to wear jerseys in public and scream at the top of our lungs. We wish ill will on opponents and cheer when the opposing team's quarterback is flattened. We root passionately for people we will never meet, many of whom represent cities that we do not live in - or rarely visit.

It’s an escape from reality. Watching a football game you can day dream that it's you that scored the winning touchdown, or that your boss is the receiver stretched out over the middle and you're the strong safety that's about to level him.

Football games are events you plan all week for -- there are few things better than getting together with friends in a parking lot to grill meat, drink beer, and talk about how your team is going to kick ass in just a few short hours (note - this no longer applies to SU). It's a time when guys argue about whether Brady fumbled or if Franco caught the ball. It’s a time to call your friends who disagree with you idiots and truly mean it. It’s a time of anticipation, because you never really know when the next Appalachian State type of upset will occur.

Sundays are worshipped at the alter of the NFL. Sundays are when your friends come over, you scream at the TV, eat big huge spreads of food and check your parlays and fantasy football results. Sundays are also for treks to the sports bar or restaurant that has the Sunday ticket because your game isn't on and missing it isn't an option.
Sundays in the fall are when you can get lost and forget that in a few short hours you'll be back at your desk killing time until next weekend. Sundays start with college highlights from the day before, and end with NFL highlights from that day – and in between, there’s nothing but glorious football.


Best WIshes from "three idiots on sports" and Hooray Football Is BACK!!

New NFL Rules Include Coin-Toss Choice

I was just reading this NFL rule change story at Yahoo Sports News, and wanted to pass it along to other football fanatics out there.
The NFL decided last April to allow coaches to make a choice if they win the coin toss at the start of the game—take the ball or defer to the second half, just as they do in college.
It takes effect when the Redskins visit the Giants Thursday night in the season opener, one of several new rules for the 2008 NFL season.
In the exhibition season, most teams have done it the old way—they have chosen to take the ball. But that may have been because coaches wanted to look at their offenses quickly so it could change when the games count and they decide they’d like to start the second half with offenses on the field.
“I think there are some advantages to deferring but we have played in an awful lot of games where, when we win the toss, we take the ball and we have done well in a lot of those games as well,” New England coach Bill Belichick said when asked why he took the ball at the start of Thursday’s game.
“I don’t know if there is anything to getting the ball and having first crack at it or giving it up and having that first possession in the second half.”
The coin toss deferral is one of several new rules, most of them geared to defense after a decade of rules that generally helped the offense.
They include:
— Giving designated defensive players a radio in his helmet, allowing coaches to relay defensive signals just as offensive signals are relayed from offensive coaches to the quarterback.
— Eliminating the 5-yard penalties for incidental face masks. Only the 15-yard penalty for grabbing and twisting the mask will be enforced. In addition, officials will be on the lookout for offensive players who latch on to the face masks of defenders in an effort to take them out of plays.
— Eliminating the force out rule. In the past, officials could rule a receiver whose feet had not touched in bounds had made a catch because a defensive player had forced him out. Under the new rule, a receiver must land with both feet in bounds regardless of whether or not he is hit while in the air.
“We feel that with so many levels of judgment that go into the force-out call, it creates a more consistent play when either you get your feet down for a complete pass or you do not,” says Atlanta president Rich McKay, co-chairman of the competition committee, which proposed the change.
— Extending instant replay to cover field goal and extra points and illegal forward handoffs. One reason the rule was added was a play at the end of a game in Baltimore in which Phil Dawson’s 51-yard game-tying field goal attempt for Cleveland bounced off an upright, then off the support behind the crossbar. Officials first ruled it no good because they thought it had hit the crossbar, then conferred and made the correct call.
The Browns went on to win in overtime.
— Muffed snaps will now be in play if they are not touched, allowing the defensive team to recover. In the past, they were ruled a false start.
Happy Football Season~~~We are definitely "READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL"!!! :)