Sports Then and Now

Just so you know, I love baseball and I love the major championships for tennis and golf and I love NASCAR (except when Jeff Burton is struggling like he is this year) and I’m somewhat infatuated with the NBA Playoffs, but I really LOVE football season.

So, you can imagine just how happy I am that the football season has finally started. For a while I wasn’t sure if it would ever start.

Before We Get Started
Since today marks the eighth anniversary of a tragic day in the history of our country and world, I would be remiss if I didn’t start my column with an acknowledgement that sports are wonderful, but in the larger scheme they are only games and entertainment. It is days like today when we must remember what is more important, family, friends, country, values, relationships and all the other things that we hold dear.

You will see on this site a couple articles that were submitted by regular contributors to this site. These are heartfelt stories and I hope you will read them with as much interest as any game story or player feature.

I especially encourage you to take a minute to read the amazing story written by Julia Civin, the 18-year old daughter of talented writer Todd Civin. You can see that his writing talent has not skipped a generation as she penned an amazing story called “When The World Decided To Share My Birthday” that is a must-read. It truly illustrates how the events of September 11 forever changed the world, even for a then-10-year-old girl.

Okay, now back to the sports.
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Just as his injury did a year ago, the return of Tom Brady will have a major impact on the AFC.

Overview: The AFC has claimed five of the last six Super Bowls and the only one they didn’t win was when the Patriots were unable to complete a perfect season in 2007. While it appears that the top teams from the NFC have improved and is actually a deeper league top-to-bottom, the AFC still has a number of top teams that are legitimate Super Bowl picks. In addition to the perennial contenders in New England, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Baltimore, there are a number of other teams preparing to make a run at the top of the conference.
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