Every weekend until the Super Bowl: There will be FOOTBALL.
August 1st means summer is close to ending and fall is right around the corner. Football fever is in the air and you can taste it. Training Camps all around the League have opened and preseason practices are about to follow suit at colleges around the country.
This past weekend will be the last weekend until the first Sunday in February that will not feature a football game. This Sunday the Colts and Packers will play the Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio; yeah it's only a preseason game - but the quarters are 15 minutes, both teams are fielding 11 players on each side of the ball, and all that matters is that it's football. The NFL preseason gives fans the chance to build hope and dreams of possibilities heading into the regular season. The majority of preseason's purpose is to develop depth, get the rookies adjusted to the speed of the game and most importantly keep your franchise players healthy. Guys are fighting for positions and jobs during the preseason, so can't say there's nothing is on the line. If you love football then you're going to watch and you're going to enjoy that it's back for the next 26 weeks.
Preseason football is the appetizer for what's ahead - I'm wasn't trying to convince you that preseason football is an entree, I know what it is in the grand scheme of things and ultimately it can't hold a candle to the opening weekends that follow.
This year's opening weekend of college football (September 1st-September 5th) might be the most intriguing weekend to ever happen. The slate of games from Thursday to Monday of Labor Day weekend is as full as it gets. There are a handful of games on Thursday to wet your whistle, even an SEC East matchup between Vanderbilt & South Carolina. On Friday night Kansas State travels to Stanford - not a premiere matchup, but both teams are Power 5 contenders in their own conference and it's round two of the Christian McCaffrey show. But after that west coast game ends you need to get to bed because the Saturday games kick off at 7:30 am with Georgia Tech vs. Boston College from across the pond in Dublin, Ireland. Again, not a premiere matchup, but it is a conference matchup and on top of that it's excuse to drink Irish coffees. At noon, Houston and Oklahoma kickoff what should be an offensive showcase featuring Houston's prolific offense and Baker Mayfield's Heisman campaign. Other interesting games kicking off at noon are Michigan vs. Hawaii and Missouri vs. West Virginia. Once the noon games conclude LSU vs. Wisconsin meet at Lambeau Field - the cheese heads will have to do all they can to avoid Leonard Fournette and the rest of the crazy Cajuns from respelling the stadium Lambeaux Field. The other intriguing matchup at 3:30 is the Adidas matchup between UCLA and Texas A&M (who probably had the worst offseason of any team in the country). As time goes on Saturday afternoon, the match-ups get better - at 6 PM the Kirby Smart era at UGA against North Carolina, who is hoping to ride last season's momentum into this season. As defending champions, Alabama will open the season where they started last year at Jerry's World in Dallas against the USC Trojans in what will be dubbed the "Lane Kiffin Bowl." To end the day, the college football playoff's runner up Clemson Tigers will travel down to the plains to face the Auburn Tigers. If you didn't get enough football on Saturday - there's still two more games to enjoy. On Sunday, Texas hosts Notre Dame as Charlie Strong tries to keep his job again this season. The last matchup of the season may be the best one of the whole weekend with Florida State vs. Ole Miss in Orlando, FL - Ole Miss returns what they claim to be the best quarterback in the SEC but Florida State is returning with 17 returning starters from last year including Heisman candidate Dalvin Cook.
Tuesday and Wednesday after Labor Day weekend are gonna be rough waiting for more football as the NFL season kicks off Thursday night with the Super Bowl rematch in Denver followed up with a full slate of games and a Monday Night Football double header.
The best part about week one in both football leagues is that it's finally here to be enjoyed - we can finally stop salivating over the possibilities and we can watch the results unfold for the next 26 weeks... until it's over and the waiting process begins again.