Jeffri Chadiha is wrong

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=chadiha_jeffri&id=3498223

The idea of this list is to take the top 10 players who are the most irreplaceable on their teams. The answer for number 1 is simple: Peyton Manning. Now, Tom Brady may go down as one of the best, if not the best, quarterback in history, and this is coming from a teal-and-orange-bleeding Dan Marino fan. The list isn't about the best player though, it's the most indispensable.

If Tom Brady goes down, the Pats still have their defense, they still have their absurd offensive line, and they still have Randy Moss. The same Randy Moss that made Daunte Culpepper look like a good quarterback. They're obviously not as good without Brady, but they're still a lock for the playoffs in the weak AFC East.

Peyton Manning isn't just the quarterback of the Colts, he's pretty much the offensive coordinator as well. Peyton Manning runs the offense like he's playing Madden. The play that he came to the line with is merely a suggestion. He takes a look at what the defense is throwing at him, turns his head, waves his arms around, and chooses a play to beat that defensive scheme. If Peyton goes down, Tony Dungy won't, nor should he, allow Jim Sorgi to run the offense. The Colts would go from one of the most dynamic offensive teams to another team that has the play called in from the sideline.

T.O. is a joke at number 3. He was tied for 20th in the league for receiving yards per game last season. The Cowboys are still very good without T.O.

Looking down the list, with a Defensive Tackle in 6th, I can only imagine that this article is meant as some sort of comment or blog bait meant to annoy people and argue about why he's wrong. Well, I bit.

It begins again

The intensity of the NFL season builds throughout the regular season, becomes white hot in the playoffs, and peaks with the Super Bowl. However, the Monday after Super Bowl Sunday begins a period of emptiness.

In most sports the season ends at different times for different people. Typically in baseball, Kansas City's fans stop caring about the season well before the season ends for Yankee fans. In football, everyone watches the championship game, as opposed to sports such as baseball and basketball where only the fans of the teams involved and a percentage of casual fans watch. Columnists talk about certain World Series match-ups being good for ratings. Nobody worries about the Super Bowl ratings being low because it involves small market teams.

In football, the season ends the same day for everyone. Once the playoffs are over, the long drought begins. Sure, there's the Pro Bowl, but nobody cares about that. Within a few months though, signs of the dawn of the new season begin to appear. Teams start talking to free agents. Players are drafted. Draft picks start signing(or don't). Mini-camps begin. Training camp begins. All these events happen at the back of the collective sports consciousness, but one event is the trumpet call that signals the football drought is almost over, today's Hall of Fame Induction.

Tomorrow is the Hall of Fame Game. The New Orleans Saints play the Pittsburgh Steelers on a high school field in Canton Ohio. Sure, the starters might only play a quarter, but this signals the beginning of preseason, and therefore the beginning of Football Season. Sundays begin their transition from the least important day of the week to Gameday.

Next week, all the other teams(including the Unstoppable Miami Dolphins) play their first preseason game. Early favorite teams and players will emerge. Starters will start to play more and more of the games, and soon enough it'll be September 6th and the regular season will begin once more.

Football season is here.