Well, rabid fans, it’s that time again!
When last season ended, I couldn’t believe how short the 2009 season felt. I couldn’t believe how fast the 17 weeks flew by. I couldn’t believe that my chosen team (I live in a city without an NFL team, so I pick one from “wherever” each year, to root for,) The San Diego Chargers, did it again. Did what? Had a fabulous year (second best record in the NFL) only to go one-and-done in the playoffs against Mark Sanchez and the upstart New York Jets. In the after-game press conference, when Phil Rivers gave his incredibly lame answer to “WTF happened to you guys??” – “Well, you know, there’s 32 teams in the NFL and 31 of ‘em are going to go home disappointed,” I wanted to reach through my 65″ TV screen and rip his frakkiing head off.
But hey, that just means I’m a rabid fan, which is the good kind of football fan, right. The closest big city to me, Los Angeles, has not had a pro football team since the dark days of the LA Raiders. I hate the Raiders, glad they found their way back to Oakland. A city as massive as LA, with no NFL team, can you believe it. We’ve got two major league baseball teams and two, count ‘em, two pro basketball teams, one (Lakers) a perennial champion, the other (Crappers) a perennial joke. But somehow we can’t arranged our f-ed-up stadium politics (it’s all about the $money$) to host a pro football team.
So I check the drafts, stats, coaches and top players each pre-season, listen to the “experts” on ESPN, and choose a team likely to be a contender – I don’t care where they’re from, just as long as they’re ready to fight – and root for them the whole year. I had the pleasure of spending some time with Mark Sanchez when he was still at USC, and the Jets look full & rich this year in the AFC, so I may run with them.
Of course, I’m an older football fan. How old, you ask? When I was 15, growing up in my home town of Baltimore, Johnny Unitas, one of the greatest quarterbacks ever, signed my NFL regulation Wilson football, while he was playing for Baltimore’s consistently championship team. The Colts…not the Ravens. The Colts before they fled in the middle of the night to Indianapolis, and left my girlfriend Jill Rosenbloom (niece of Colt executive Carol Rosenbloom) crying in my arms. So you could say I’m football legacy.
So I put some good hook-ups on this site to find your favorite gear – hats, clothes, aut0graphed balls, you-name-it, from all your favorite NFL teams. Enjoy!