Where LeBron should go this summer

Ok, so LeBron wants 2 things:

1 – A Championship ring
2 – Become a global icon (aka large market)

So when taking these into consideration, we can eliminate many teams. Obviously, with LeBron on your team, you are a championship contender, so let us go to number 2 and figure out what teams and markets can make him a global icon. Here’s my list: LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Houston, Miami, New York, New Jersey, Chicago, and Dallas. Let’s examine these and then talk about Cleveland as well. (In parentheses are the chances it could happen that LeBron goes to that team)

Lakers: There is relatively no chance LeBron goes to the Lakers. They are 30 million over the cap next year; so good luck getting LeBron to take a mid-level exception or veteran minimum salary when the Clippers can give him a max deal. (1 out of 10)

Houston: Interesting here because this only makes sense if T-Mac leaves and Yao doesn’t opt out. As long as Yao can come back healthy, he can help make LeBron huge in China, as he did with T-Mac. If that doesn’t happen, then this point is mute. (3 out of 10)

Dallas: Dallas has an owner who would make him huge, plus they already have a star from Europe that could help LeBron build his Euro image. This only happens if they trade Dampier and Marion and then let Howard go. Not too likely but there is a chance. (Interesting to note, Dirk has a player option for next year and if he walked, would LeBron sign with relatively the same group Dirk had?) (4 out of 10)

New York: This is what has been prophesized for over a year. -- “LeBron and Friends” directed by Mike D’Antoni and Produced by Donnie Walsh. -- Well, I don’t know if that’s going to happen. The Knicks have a coach and a stadium and a city to offer LeBron…and that’s it. The biggest obstacle is Eddy Curry. He has a player option for $11.2 million for the 2011 season. If he picks it up (why wouldn’t he?) then the Knicks have $27 million in the books and can sign LeBron plus one other really good player. The problem is they are coming to a team with no help at all. Here are the players under contract next year with the Knicks: Eddy Curry ($11.2), Jared Jefferies ($6.9 [player option]), Danilo Gallinari ($3.3), Jordan Hill ($2.7), Wilson Chandler ($2.1) and Toney Douglas ($1.1). Yep…not much there, huh? Now, if Jefferies and Curry are stupid enough to decline their options and walk, the Knicks are in business. That would leave the Knicks with only $9 million in salaries. You can do a lot with that amount of room. Hell, they could almost sign Wade, LeBron and Bosh, all to max contracts. That won’t happen and LeBron will not go there (most likely). (5 out of 10)

Miami: Have a lot of cap room but this only happens if Wade stays and they can resign at least Haslem. Right now, only 5 guys are under contract and none of them are PFs or Cs. However, this does have some chance of happening because Beasley is there and so is Chalmers. Also, after signing LeBron, Miami would still have about $14 million in open cap space. Combine that with a mid-level guy and South Beach, you could have a real winner. (6 out of 10)

New Jersey: So this just got interesting with this new Russian owner. He has a lot of money and can single-handedly make the move to Brooklyn happen. Jay-Z remains a minority investor and good friends with LeBron. Maybe the most recognizable city in the world; everything is in New York. This transition would make him huge. The Nets will lose no good players (Harris-Lee-Lopez are signed through at least 2001) and they have Yi who could help gain LeBron exposure in China. (The most watched NBA game ever was in Yi’s rookie year with Milwaukee and it was a regular season game against Houston; 200+ million viewers.) This scenario has legs and could go somewhere but Jay-Z would have to make a big sell because they really aren’t that good of a team even with LeBron. (7 out of 10)

Chicago: On the books for $38 mill next year. However, if they’re able to trade Deng for an expiring contract, they’d only have $26 mill on the books for next year, meaning they could have a legit shot at LeBron and another good player. If they salary cap goes to $55 million, which some believe it will, that gives Chicago $29 million in cap room. LeBron will take about $16 million from any team (other than Cleveland) and that would leave approximately $13 million. I think you could see a guy like Wade sign for a little less for 3 years at 13-14-15 mill and then go for a max contract with the Bulls. He grew up in Chicago and he could play on a great team. They could sign LeBron and Bosh. Even if they keep Deng, LeBron could still come in under cap because he can only sign for $13.5 million in year one with any team other than Cleveland. (8 out of 10)

Clippers: A lot of people like this, including myself. They could have a six man rotation of Griffin-LeBron-Baron-Gordon-Kaman-Thornton. Pretty good rotation plus it’s a large market that can help his stature grow. I could see LeBron loving the idea of taking a team with talent and winning with them, all the while, shooting TV cameos and making movies in LA. We all saw the ESPYs; we know he wants fame of all types. He would be all over TMZ and would love it. That’s the biggest reason for him to go to LA. And if it seems like the team would struggle because of lack of depth, they still have their draft pick from this year (probably lottery) and will have a mid-level exception to use on a vet. (9 out of 10)

Cleveland: The Cavs have a chance at keeping LeBron. However, they have a lot of cap space used up and even if LeBron only picks up his player option (leaving him a free agent in the summer of 2011), they still would have only $3 million in open cap space. Shaq and Big Z are the only guys not under contract. So, if he was to stay, say one more year, and they could bring in a good big man on the mid-level this makes sense. I don’t see how that happens. If anything, he signs a max deal and then Cleveland either resigns Shaq or Z to a mid-level for a year or trades a few guys for another big. They have Mo Williams at $9 mill a year average and Varejao at $8 million a year average. Not much of an enticing combo. He’s spent his whole life in the greater Cleveland area. He wants to be global and Cleveland (the city) only has about 450,000 people living there. Now, the metro area of Cleveland is about 3 million but still, it’s a small city in comparison to a Chicago (2.8 city, 9.8 metro), LA (3.8 city, 12.9 metro) or NY (8.4 city, 18.2 metro). So, he’s going to want to move, it’s in the cards. We can all tell. (Chances he stays in Cleveland 5 out of 10)

To sum up, I say if LeBron only cares about the global icon thing, you’ll see him in one of 3 spots: Knicks, Nets or Clippers. If Cares about winning Championships, Chicago is the place to go (don’t forget, MJ was a pretty big global celeb pre-internet and satellite TV, all in Chicago). I’m biased, but I say go to Chicago. It’s a great fit. They can resign a lot of the young guys when the time comes and they will be a really good team when it’s all said and done (especially with LeBron)

NBA Preview

Predictions

Wizards – My darkhorse team. They’re pretty deep at guard and have a good starting front court. 2 things are important for the Wizards: Health and the development of a 3rd frontcourt player. I think the latter can be filled by Andray Blatche. If they stay healthy, they could win the East. Arenas is very good and Butler and Jamison have really played well the last couple of years.

Power Distance – The West and the East will have a large power distance. I think the Bulls and Heat will finish 5-6 in the East and yet I don’t see either team approaching 50 wins, while I think the Wiz, Celts, Cavs, and Magic will all have 50+. In the West, the record might not separate the Spurs and the Lakers from the pack too much but, it will be evident that talent wise, those two are the best.

Hornets – I think the Hornets miss the playoffs. They struggled last year and I think the Okafor is not the type of player for their offense (FYI – Tyson Chandler was and still is that type of player). I think they try to trade some of their players like Peja and Posey. Right now, the Hornets are on the books for $73 million this year and next year. Unless they are playing great, they will not want to keep this team around for a second straight year.

Warriors – The Warriors will make the playoffs. It will be a close race for the bottom of the West and I think the Rockets and Warriors will emerge above the Suns, Clippers, Hornets, and Thunder. The Warriors have a pretty good team and a good offense. Don’t expect them to win 50, maybe a little closer to .500 like 42 wins.

McGrady – I think McGrady will come back at the end of December and will be traded before the end of the year. This is completely dependent upon McGrady coming back. If he doesn’t, then the Rockets will use his open salary number this summer to go after a free agent. I think they’d rather trade him though and bring in someone because they are going to have to pay Scola a lot.

Heat – The Heat are only on the books for 25 million next year and that includes 17 million of a player option for Dwayne Wade. So, they have two choices, one, trade an expiring contract or two for some big time players and try to win or two, keep the expiring deals and go after Lebron. I think they’ll stay pat and most likely lose Wade.

Cavs – The Cavs will struggle on defense. Big Z and Shaq are liabilities against teams that can spread the floor and do a lot of pick n rolls. Think if KG and Rasheed as the 4-5, you have to bench Shaq and Z right?

Thunder - They’ll take a big step forward. Won’t make the playoffs but will do well enough to push for .500. (Don’t forget they only won 23 last year)

Bulls – They’ll have a really good year….at home. They are going to struggle on the road (just like last year) but at home, they may win 34 games.

Raptors – I think the Raptors are the only team that will challenge for a playoff spot but I don’t see them being that good of a team this year. They still lack a good bench and if they struggle, they might trade Bosh if they can get a first and 1-2 good players in return.

Spurs – They will win it all because they have depth and have a finishing 5 (Parker – Ginobili – Jefferson – McDyess – Duncan) that cannot be matched by anybody. Plus, their bench is really, really good.

Spurs over Lakers in the West Finals. Celtics over Wizards in East Finals. Spurs over Celtics in Finals.

East Playoffs (In Order)
Cavs – Celtics – Magic – Wiz – Bulls – Heat – Hawks – Pistons
West Playoffs (In Order)
Lakers – Spurs – Mavs– Nuggets – Jazz – Blazers – Rockets – Warriors

AFC East Preview

AFC EAST

Opponents - (NFC South, AFC South) - NE (BAL, DEN) - BUF (KC, CLE) - MIA (SD, PIT) - NYJ (OAK, CIN)

(1 - Every division plays one division from the other conference. 2 - Every division plays one division from the same conference. 3 - The remaining eight teams in the conference are split amongst the divisional teams [referred to as variable games])

New England Patriots

Offense: They return the same offensive line for the 3^rd consecutive year, helping the continuity of the offense. They also added depth to the position by drafting 6 foot 8 Sebastian Vollmer, who can play guard and tackle, in the second round of this past year’s draft. Also returning are Randy Moss and Wes Welker to the receiver positions and they are added to this year by Joey Galloway (TB) and Greg Lewis (PHI). They will miss Jabar Gaffney, an underrated 3^rd receiver. Gaffney had built a solid chemistry with Brady since joining the Pats in the middle of the 2006 season. In the 07 season, Gaffney had 24 receptions and 4 touchdowns between weeks 11 and 16. Also, 2006 season’s playoffs, Gaffney had 18 catches in the first two games. The tight end position welcomes two new veteran additions to the mix, Chris Baker (NYJ) and Alex Smith (TB). Both guys, and fourth year man David Thomas, will compete, presumably, for the number 2 TE position behind Benjamin Watson. At running back, the Pats added one new guy to the mix, Fred Taylor (JAX). It’s unclear who will start and most likely, all the guys (Sammy Morris, Kevin Faulk, Laurence Maroney, and Taylor) will get playing time. The biggest news is the return of Tom Brady. Brady looks healthy so far this offseason. He backed up by Andrew Walter (OAK) and second year man Kevin O’Connell.

Look for the offense to continue to put up numbers, even with the loss of Josh McDaniel’s. The offense will be the same, spread style of attack, so expect Faulk to receive the bulk of the plays as he’s the receiving/third down back. The Pats will need either Galloway or Lewis to step up as defenses key on Moss and Welker; if neither can, Julian Edelman and Mathew Slater seemed to be their only competition, with neither have real professional experience.

Defense: For the sixth straight year, the Pats will have the same 3 starting on the defense line. Richard Seymour, Ty Warren and Vince Wilfork (all first round picks) have been constants on an otherwise revolving-door-of-players defense. Wilfork is in negotiations with the Pats about extending his deal, and although it is unlikely, if he were to be traded, expect Ron Brace to replace him at nose tackle. At linebacker, the Pats have 2 sure things, 2^nd year man Jerod Mayo and Adalius Thomas. Tedy Bruschi will most likely share time with second year man Gary Guyton at MLB as Bruschi continues to age. The other outside linebacker is a crap shoot. The Pats just got Derrick Burgess (OAK) and are apparently interested in Kevin Carter (TEN). They also have Tully Banta-Cain (SF) who’s been with New England before and young guys Pierre Woods and Shawn Crable. Expect Burgess to emerge and Woods to receive time at the position as well. The Secondary returns one starter from last year, James Sanders, and will replace Rodney Harrison with third year man Brandon Meriweather. The corner positions will most likely be filled by Leigh Bodden (DET) and Shawn Springs (WAS). Also in the mix is Jonathan Wilhite and rookie Darius Butler.

The defense should be a top-10 defense, but the stats will be a little skewed if the Pats have a good offense, forcing their opponents to throw more than normal. Look for rookie Pat Chung to get a lot of playing time at SS in the nickel with Meriweather moving to nickel back in those packages, something he played the last two years. The biggest thing will be who emerges as the other OLB from Thomas. I think Woods will be the normal guy with Burgess playing in pass rush situations.

Outlook: The Pats are poised to return to the Playoffs. If Brady is healthy look for an 11-14 win season. The key stretch in New England’s schedule will be weeks 9-15. Following a week 8 bye, the Pats have 4 of their 6 divisional games in this 7 game stretch and will have to go to Indy and New Orleans.

Buffalo Bills

Offense: Offensive line is the opposite of New England’s. They return 2 starters, Langston Walker and Brad Butler, but neither is playing the same position. Walker is moving from LT to RT, Butler from RG to RT. They are starting two rookies, at RG Eric Wood (28^th pick), and at LG, Andy Levitre (51^st pick). At center they bring in Geoff Hangartner (CAR) who started at the position 4 games last year for Carolina. Look for veteran Seth McKinney (CLE), who has 45 career starts at G to replace one of the rookies unless they perform well. Marshawn Lynch will miss the first 3 games of the year for a suspension. The Bills have Dominic Rhodes (IND) and Fred Jackson to grab most of the carries, with young guy Xavier Omon as a dark horse in the competition. At tight end, look for three guys (Derek Schoumann, Derek Fine, and Shawn Nelson) to see playing time; with third year man Schoumann starting. Wide receiver is going to be interesting to see who gets playing time. Most likely, Buffalo will go with 3 wide and that presumably leaves Roscoe Parrish as the fourth man. With Terrell Owens (DAL), Josh Reed, and Lee Evans, the Bills will have a very good receiving core. At quarterback, the Bills need Trent Edwards to step up if they want to be a winning team. Edwards is most likely going to have an inconsistent offensive line in front of him and it will be up to him to get the ball out to his receivers before a constant rush. They are backing him up with Ryan Fitzpatrick (CIN) but the job is Edward’s.

The development of the offensive line will be huge. They need a running game to take the pressure of the offensive line in the passing game but without Lynch for the first three games, that may be a struggle. I don’t see T.O. being a distraction, but more of an afterthought. Think Randy Moss in 2006 with Oakland when he had 42 receptions. I say this because if the offensive line can’t protect Edwards, the Bills will have to resort to a short passing game. Terrell could get a lot of receptions in a system like that but not a lot of yards or touchdowns.

Defense: The D-Line returns all 4 starters including Pro-Bowler Aaron Schobel who only played 5 games last year before going out to injury. Look for Ryan Denney, who replaced Schobel after his injury, to also work in as a 3 man rotation at DE. The three starting linebackers return this year as well. Paul Posluszny enters his third season in the league at middle linebacker. Look for him to make a jump to over 100 tackles this year. At safety, Bryan Scott, who started 7 games at SS and FS last year, will replace Ko Simpson as the starting SS this year. Terrence McGee returns at Corner and Leodis Mckelvin will start this season at the other corner spot.

The defense has 11 guys who all started last year at least 5 games on their team. There should be a good chemistry with the defense. Donte Whitner is young and talented and the Bills will need him to produce. Buffalo’s first round pick, DE Aaron Maybin is still unsigned and may not have much playing time this year. To me, Maybin is a 3-4 outside linebacker, not a 4-3 DE, but he will most likely work into the rotation next year.

Outlook: The Bills look like a good team right now if the offensive line can gain chemistry fast. The Bills were 14^th in yards allowed last year, look for an improvement on that with almost everyone back and a season with 6-9 wins. The key part of the Bills schedule is weeks 1-3. To New England, then home against Tampa and New Orleans and they don’t have their #1 running back. Buffalo can’t get off to a bad start because 5 of their next 7 games are on the road.

Miami Dolphins

Offense: The offensive line returns two good tackles, Vernon Carey and Jake Long. The LG, Justin Smiley, also returns but the Dolphins brought in Jake Grove (OAK) to play center and are using second year man Shawn Murphy at RG. Look for teams to key on the right side of the line trying to force Murphy into mistakes. Miami has Anthony Fasano and David Martin returning at TE but also have Ernest Wilford as their fifth TE. This team is looking for wide outs and it would seem someone like Wilford would work because he did it in Jacksonville, grabbing 140 receptions in his first four years in the league. With that said, last year, in his first year with Miami, Wilford only had 3 receptions. At WR the Dolphins drafted Patrick Turner and Brian Hartline; look for Hartline to emerge as a top receiver on the team. Right now their top 4 receivers are Devone Bess, Ted Ginn, Greg Camarillo and Hartline. A lot of speed but look for the TE position to be the go to receiver in the red zone as Hartline being the tallest of the bunch at 6’2”. At running back, the Dolphins return one of the best 1-2 combos in the league, in Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown. The combo had 1,600 yards last year and look for that to remain the same this year. At quarterback, the Dolphins still have Chad Pennington but are backing him up with Chad Henne and rookie Pat White. If Pennington suffers an injury, look for them to try and add someone like Cleo Lemon rather than go with Henne. Pat White is appealing because he can be their wild cat quarterback or he can play receiver or he can play running back; how they use him will be interesting.

The offense is good and I think Hartline can be a real good receiver. The key to this offense is how Pennington plays. Pennington has never started more than 9 games in an odd year. He is injury prone and it seems to bite him the worst in odd numbered years. Look at his games played stats: ‘02 – 15, ‘03 – 10, ‘04 – 13, ‘05 – 3, ‘06 – 16, ‘07 – 9, ‘08 – 16. If he goes down or plays poorly, look for this offense to struggle bad. Pennington led the league in completion percentage last year. This team needs him.

Defense: The defensive line is average in Miami. They like second year DE Kendall Langford. But this team only needs its D line to fill up gaps because they now have Jason Taylor (WAS) returning to the team as an outside linebacker. If Taylor stays healthy, he and Joey Porter could dominate, combing for 25+ sacks this year. Their MLBs Akin Ayodele and Channing Crowder are very solid players. This team will force opposing offenses to keep a TE or RB in the back field to help with Porter and Taylor. They start Will Allen, a sure tackler but gets beat a lot for a #1 CB, and Eric Green (ARZ) who only has 2 career picks in 4 seasons. They drafted Vontae Davis and I like him a lot. He’s physical but he’s the same as Will Allen, a good tackler for a corner but gets beat a lot. Davis can probably beat out Green sometime this year but also look for second round pick Sean Smith to get some playing time and for the two to be starters next year. At safety, the Dolphins have a great combo. Yeremiah Bell and Gibril Wilson (OAK) are both excellent safeties. The only downside is both guys are better at strong safety and playing near the line but look for Wilson to make an easy adjustment to FS.

Bringing back Taylor was a big addition and so was Wilson. If the defense stays healthy, they should have a good year. They were 9^th last year in defensive points per game and they could jump into the top 5 this year. (interesting note, one would think with Taylor’s age, that he’d only play about 60% of the plays but the starter at OLB last year, Matt Roth, is listed as the #7 OLB right now.)

Outlook: I think the Dolphins will have a good defense but will struggle offensively because I see Pennington getting injured or struggling. I see them staying in a lot of games and winning 5-9 games this year. The Dolphins have a very hard schedule. For their two variable games, they got SD and PIT. I would like to point to one spot of the schedule that’s important, but it’s all important. They start out with 3 playoffs teams (@ATL, vsIND, @SD) then get two home games, but it’s against divisional opponents Buffalo and New York. Then from week 8 to week 15, they have 6 road games. In addition, one of their two home games during that stretch is against New England. Also, they got Pittsburgh in week 17 and they better hope Pitt has already secured a playoff spot or that could be rough.

New York Jets

Offense: Return all 5 offensive line starters and expect the O Line to be even better this year. The offensive line has a combined 480 starts between the 5 of them. I don’t have the numbers but that has to be one of the highest amounts of starts in the NFL. Also, every guy has at least 48 starts and they combine for 10 pro bowl selections. Dustin Keller remains the teams #1 tight end but their depth chart has recently converted DE Kareem Brown as the number 2. The other 3 tight ends are all undrafted rookies. Look for Keller to get almost all of the minutes in this group. Chansi Stuckey and Jericho Cotchery are the numbers 1 and 2 WRs for the Jets. Brad Smith is their #3 but after him it’s a very thin group. Look for Wallace Wright to be the #4 receiver there. At running back, New York goes three deep including rookie Shonn Greene, who has been impressing people in camp. Thomas Jones is still the #1 and Leon Washington the number two, but Greene should be getting a good amount of carries by the middle of the season. Quarterback is a very interesting spot with the Jets. It’s a two way competition with Kellen Clemons and rookie Mark Sanchez.

The offense has good running backs and a great O Line. With that said, their receivers are underwhelming and if Sanchez does start, as most people think will happen, you don’t know how he’ll respond. The AFC East is filled with talented defenses. This team should do a lot of running because Greene is ready now.

Defense: Marques Douglas (BAL) is the new DE starter for this team, joining Shaun Ellis and Kris Jenkins on the D Line. Douglas is a good, solid player who is very durable. He’s played all 16 games the last 6 years of his career. The Jets added Bart Scott (BAL) to anchor the defense this year. He and Douglas come over with Rex Ryan. The other 3 linebackers, Calvin Pace, David Harris and Bryan Thomas all return as starters from last year. At corner the Jets added Lito Sheppard (PHI) and have moved second year man Dwight Lowery to the nickel corner. Darrelle Revis still starts at the other corner spot. Kerry Rhodes returns to start at FS but SS is an open competition between Jim Leonhard and Eric Smith. Smith started 6 games last year but look for Leonhard to win the competition as he is currently in the lead.

It’s hard to say how good this defense will be since it’s a new system with Rex Ryan compared to Eric Mangini’s. I like Lito Sheppard and they now have corner depth in case of injury but SS worries me because neither Smith nor Leonhard is a great player. Their line backing crew will be asked to do a lot, like Baltimore’s is, but only Bart Scott seems ready for that. Look for them to struggle a bit unless they only run a skeleton defense of what the Ravens run, which is pretty complex.

Outlook: I think this team takes a step back. A new coach and a new regime; they don’t have a quarterback and their receivers aren’t very good. Look for them to win around 5-8 games. The key stretch in the Jets schedule is weeks 2-6. They host New England and Tennessee and then go to New Orleans and Miami before returning home to face the Bills. This stretch is all the more important if Sanchez is the starting QB; he has to face the Pats D and the Titans D in weeks 2 and 3.

A New Beginning

Well, here's my blog. I'm going to talk about sports on here because...well...that's all I really know. First, I wanted to post an article I wrote for the website bleacherreport.com back in August of 2008. It's a Brady v Manning article.


The Time Is Now

In golf, everyone wants to find the equal to Tiger Woods. Our newest candidate: Padraig Harrington. As a society, we always want to have those natural rivalries between two greats going head-to-head.

However, if we had an equal for Tiger, how much would we really enjoy it?

In the NFL, we have two Tiger Woods. We have the natural rivalry of two equals who are above and beyond the rest.

Of course I’m talking about Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.

Both can put up eye popping numbers with great players around them, but more importantly, both win. That’s all they do is win. Cris Carter caught Touchdowns. Manning and Brady win.

This year will be Brady’s 8^th year as the Patriots starter. In his first 7 years, he has 6 playoff appearances, 5 AFC Championship appearances, and one MVP.

Manning will be entering into his 11^th season starting for the Colts. In Peyton’s first 10 years, he’s has 8 playoff appearances, 2 AFC Championship appearances, and two MVPs.

Most people forget that both players started on pretty poor teams. The Colts had a brief two year stint in which the went to the playoffs twice in 95 and 96 but then had a 3-13 year and decided to rebuild. That’s when Manning stepped in. Number one overall pick, he led his team to a 13 win season in just his second year.

After Pete Carroll left New England, the Pats were in a rebuilding mode. They hired Belichick and had a 5 win season. The next year, Super Bowl, and since then the Patriots have been at least tied for first place in the division every single year.

The success of the two teams has made for some very memorable games. McGinnest stops Edgerrin James on the one in 2003. Manning out-dueling Brady in the 2007 AFC Championship Game and the 03 AFC Championship game where Ty Law intercepted Manning 3 times.

Now, as a football community, a lot of people really take it for granted that we have this great rivalry. I do understand that this isn’t a natural rivalry like the Bears and Packers but it’s better than that because every year it’s two great, great teams. And for the most part, the games have been very good and very closely played. As a Patriots fan, this is the game I look forward to every year. I have an extreme dislike for the Colts but if the Pats were to blow them out in a game, I would be disappointed. I want it to be a good game because to me, it’s almost like a super bowl.

This year, the NFL did the smart thing and put this game on Sunday night in week 9. Now, I’d prefer to have this game closer to week 12 or 13 but 9 is good. Both teams will probably enter the game with at least 5-2 records. And putting it on primetime was great as well.

However, I worry that too many people will just view this as just another game, like it wouldn’t matter if this was San Fran vs Philadelphia or Colts vs Pats. And that is where the problem is. 30 years from now, people are going to remember the Manning and Brady era. They’re going to show highlights of their games and everyone will say “Yeah! I saw that game” as if it was some sort of an accomplishment.

However, too many of those people will just watch the game with only half interest. In the moment, people don’t realize how great it is. We don’t realize how great Nadal vs Federer really is until it’s gone. The same can be said for the Colts vs Pats.

And with both QB’s in the early 30’s, it may soon be gone sooner than we think.