NFL Kickoff Weekend 2005-

Bring out the grill. Bring out the potato chips and beer. Blow up that inflatable chair you got for the Super Bowl last year. Tell your boss you can no longer work on Sunday's for religious reasons. That's right, folks! Football season is here.

Jerry Rice would now like to sign a one day contract in San Francisco so he can retire as a 49er. The only problem is that due to league rules, the Niners would be forced to release a player because they are already at maximum roster level. The Niners aren't going to do it, nor should they. I know Jerry is possibly the best football player to ever play the game and a model citizen as well, but that can't justify the team putting some poor kid who worked his tail off for the past two months in the misery of being cut. Even if he is picked up by the Niners a day later. The real point to this story is this. Who really cares who the last team Jerry played for was before he retired anyways? NOBODY is going to think of him as a Bronco, Raider, Seahawk, or anything other than a San Francisco 49er. This charade of retiring with your former team is ridiculous. Either teams should make a commitment to keeping their star players until they retire or players should agree to take paycuts when their skills diminish. A one day contract doesn't make up for the fact that Cowboy fans had to watch Emmitt break the rushing record in a Cardinal uniform.

The Vikings signed troubled WR Koren Robinson to a new deal. What are they thinking on this one. Six months ago they trade the most talented reciever in the league because he was a locker room problem. Fine. I've got no problem with that. But after making that statement, how do you turn around and sign a bigger locker room problem with less talent. This is a bonehead move that doesn't make any sense. It's like listening to Guns N Roses "Paradise City" all the way through. You know what the beginning of the song sounds like, so why stick around for the second half? Same situation here, Mike Tice. Chapter 2 reads just like chapter 1, only it's not as interesting the second time around.

I'm really looking forward to the clever taunts the fans are going to have for Terrell Owens and Mike Vick. My favorite from last year was the sign that said "T.O. has B.O." My guess this year is that some fan will use the 'Ron Mexico' alias in some lude way to top the 2005 best sign list.

I used to go to Astro games and sit right behind the third base line. Every time I went they seemed to be playing the Reds. Whenever Junior would come to the on deck circle I would yell out, "Hey, that guy used to be Ken Griffey Jr." That was my all time favorite taunt. I wouldn't have been able to use it this year though. We would also purposely confuse Barry Larkin for Deion Sanders. I love calling Barry "Primetime". We give Adam Dunn a free pass because he's a hometown kid, but everyone else is fair game. Hey, heckling is a fan's right. as long as you stay within reason.

How jealous are Bears fans over the Packers? I think they've started something like 28 different quarterbacks since Brett Favre started his consecutive games streak. Two years ago I was dead set on the Packers taking Grossman. Sure am glad that didn't happen. I think this will be Brett's last year, so savor as much of it as you can. Even if you're not a Packer fan, and even if Favre consistently beats your hometown team, you've still got to respect the guy. He's a football player in the truest sense of the word. So here's to Brett Favre, here's to football, and of course, here's to twins.

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