Are you ready for some football? I mean… actual football. Not the kickball that the Europeans and hipster millennials watch. This week we’ll be getting back to our regular series of NFL discussions for all the fans out there as Ed and I work on our prognostication skills and give everyone else a chance to weigh in. If there was any big news for Ed this week it was probably mostly centered on Tom Brady. Now that the cheater Patriots QB has beaten the system and gotten his suspension lifted, he’ll be at the helm for their first game against the Steelers. That’s not to say that Pittsburgh couldn’t beat them with their star lining up under center but it certainly would have been easier with him watching from home. Of course, in their usual fashion, New England was prepared to act like a bunch of spoiled brats and were going to refuse to raise their Superbowl 49 banner this week if Brady wasn’t reinstated, instead preparing a Brady banner to stick it in the eye of the NFL.

I’ll leave it to Ed as to whether or not he wants to comment on the results of the off season and how ready the Steelers are, but I know he’s at least ready for some football.

You know who’s not ready for some football? Tim Tebow. He was signed by the Eagles during the preseason and honestly I thought he was going to get a spot on the roster even if he wasn’t starting. He looked very impressive in their final preseason game against my Jets (even though we still won… *cough*) with several long, spot on passes and a couple of TDs. But the Eagles still dumped him and their coach added insult to injury by suggesting that maybe “he should go play in the Canadian League for a while.”

Speaking of the Jets, are they read for some football? I don’t want to start crying in my Jets beer mug before the season even begins but the portents have been a bit less than awesome, even if we did rack up a good record in the meaningless preseason games. I mean, it’s hard to build up too much excitement about your team when their first big headline was the fact that your starting quarterback got his jaw broken long before the first official game. Adding literal insult to literal injury was the fact that he didn’t even break it on the field. He got punched in the face by one of his own guys. To add to the indignity, after IK Enemkpali lit him up, the Bills immediately hired him. (To be fair, they later cut him so he probably won’t be playing anywhere, but that’s going to cause some hurt feelings when Buffalo comes to town.) We’re apparently going to go with Ryan Fitzpatrick, formerly of the same Bills team, but yesterday we cut veteran backups Josh Johnson and Matt Flynn, so all we’ve got left on the bench is rookie Bryce Petty. Petty looked pretty good in the limited snaps he had this summer, but I doubt he’s ready for prime time if Fitz either gets hurt or collapses under the weight of unforced errors. On top of that we lost our safety, Antonio Allen and two of our tight ends, Jace Amaro and Zach Sudfield to injured reserve.

But hey… you gotta have faith. This is the Jets year, baby. Superbowl 50 here we come! (Even if our team is watching it on TV.) And if not, maybe the Steelers will win.

Have at it. Even all of you who support any of those other thirty off brand teams.