It's that time of year!!!

Football is back! Say it with me people, WOOHOO!!! This was the annual NFL Hall of Fame weekend with the induction ceremony and football game. I skipped watching the induction ceremony because after watching Michael Irvin's speech (over and over and over again) I just couldn't handle watching more grown men cry. Sorry. I know these are great players/coaches, but other than Dick LeBeau (who incidentally, had one of the best and shortest induction speeches) I don't need to see the speeches. I can google it and see it later. That being said, the game was typical of the Hall of Fame weekend in that the starters played for maybe a series, if that, and we got to see a whole bunch of boys that probably won't be playing in the NFL again. Well, at least they got on television for a play or two.

Training camp is upon us and I can't wait to see the Jets on Hard Knocks which airs on HBO in two days. I love that series and am so glad they decided to follow around teams that aren't the Cowboys. To be fair, they haven't followed the Cowboys in a few years and that's perfectly alright with me. What would be great would be if they could just hit every team on a yearly rotating basis. Last year was the Bengals. This year is the Jets. Maybe next year the Saints? That would be awesome, but doubt that would happen. We can hope right?

One thing I must point out though about the HBO series. On the initial playing of an episode, which is at 10 pm, they don't censor anything, but if it plays during the day, they bleep out certain curse words. Really? It's freakin HBO! That's the whole point of it!!! If you don't like swearing, don't watch the cable channel. For crying out loud, it's bad enough to censor some words out (and I don't mean dropping the f-bomb on network television) on basic cable, but it's a premium
channel. What's up with that? Hopefully they don't do that this year.

I have high hopes this year for the Saints and even higher hopes for the Lions. The Saints are already hearing the talk about how they can't possibly repeat a Super Bowl appearance, let alone a win, and I'm all about them telling them what they can't do. After all, they weren't supposed to beat the Cardinals and they weren't supposed to beat the Vikings and they sure as hell weren't supposed to beat the Colts, so keep on telling the Saints what they aren't supposed to do just so they can shove it down your throats. And the Lions? Well, they've become the whipping boys of the NFL. I don't negate the fact that they have the record of worst losing season ever, but they're a new team with a coach who seems to know what he's doing and a young quarterback that's already had a trial by fire and came out not too bad. This year's draft was looking pretty good and it's the NFC North which hasn't exactly been coming up roses the last couple of seasons, the Vikings excluded. I say, go Matty and go Lions! I hope they shock the crap out of all the haters.

Training camp - WOOHOO at life.sa.laugh@hotmail.com.