I love the NFL

I'm excited about this year's football season. I'm not willing to actually put any money on it, especially since I've never bet a dime on a football game, but I think both the Chiefs and the Bucs are going to be good this year. Or at least, for the Bucs, better than expected.

My starting fantasy football team has a bunch of gambles on it. Culpepper should be good, but at halftime, it looks like he might really miss Randy Moss. Fred Taylor will be injured -- he always is -- so that's a big roll of the dice. Cadillac Williams as a rookie is a big gamble, but he's getting a lot of carries in the first half of the first game. Deion Branch and Torry Holt should be good for receivers. Alex Smith, my TE, already has two touchdowns in his first half of professional football -- I bet that pace doesn't continue through the season. Janikowski, one of my favorite drunks, still should kick a lot of points. And the Steelers have a good defense, I think.

Football is a great sport to observe from a distance. The athleticism, the hits, the balanced competition, the excitement of a crowd -- it's a lot of fun. Up close and personal, the athletes are self-important prima donnas who have been worshipped by an adoring public at least since they were 13. Although there are probably a lot of decent, solid guys playing the sport, too many of them are obnoxious morons with way too much money and delusions of drandeur. I didn't tolerate very well the high school football athletes who thought too much of themselves either.

I don't care as much for most college football. Only a handful of games are balanced, with huge talent disparities the norm for most games. But a good college game is also fun. I didn't care much for the lengthy delays for video review yesterday.