Yes it seems early to despair, but it looks like the Miami Dolphins are going to have a difficult year ahead of them. They were planning to have a big year, one year after winning one of football’s toughest divisions. But last weekend, Chad Pennington, their quarterback, dislocated his throwing shoulder, which in turn will drop the team way down in expectations. He is planning to be out for the rest of the season, which means that the next time we see him on the field will probably be August 2010. The team tried to delay major announcement of the injury for a little while until they could be sure, but now it seems to be for certain, at least according to the sources that are quoted in the media. What a tough break for a team that hasn’t been able to see success in many years.

Mark Sanchez, the new Jets quarterback, is currently slightly injured. But it’s not really a bad thing, because it sounds like he’s going to be ok’d for their game this weekend against the Titans. He apparently has some tendinitis in his knee, his right knee, but it’s not expected to stop him from playing, it would seem. That’s good too, because Sanchez seems to be leading his new team to some amazing places and it’s going to be very interesting to see what he can put together against a team as tough as the Titans. It’s easy to forget how far the Titans made it during last year, with a record that was close to perfect for a long time. If Sanchez is at his top level, this might be the game of the week. Two sorta dark-horse teams pushing their way towards the playoffs will face off. This will be a lot of fun.

It looked like the Lions would finally win a game for the first time in awhile. They were up 10-0 in the 2nd quarter. That’s about the time the wheels came off. They started making mistakes and losing catches and causing penalties. This team is still struggling this year, and Matt Stafford hasn’t yet been able to get into his original style of play. Meanwhile, the Vikings are now doing very well, starting off 2-0 in the season. But it wasn’t a blowout, despite the score of 27-13. Favre only threw a few more yards than Stafford. But they were more important yards and got them the touchdowns that they need. The Lions are going to keep looking for that win moving forwards!

The Philadelphia Eagles are still holding onto their hope that Donovan McNabb might be able to play this weekend against the New Orleans Saints. He was injured last week in a game out of town. He apparently has a broken rib. These usually take awhile to get past and but for some reason the Eagles haven’t ruled him out for this weekend. Maybe they don’t want to go with Garcia? Perhaps they don’t want to deal with Vick a little bit later on. McNabb is one of the best players in the league and his loss could be devastating for the Eagles. But they have Vick, who has proven talent, and they have another QB. Who knows where the team got that kind of depth but there it is. They will be fine, though perhaps not as dominating. Then again, McNabb might show up on Sunday all the same, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The NFL is looking about as-expected after the first weekend of the season, with many of the better teams winning. The teams that were good last year and have not fallen apart in the offseason remained good for Week 1. The Cardinals lost to the 49ers, which is kind of a surprise, although San Francisco has improved greatly this year, with Mike Singletary coaching this team well. Meanwhile, the other upset had the Green Bay Packers beating the beefed up Chicago Bears by about a touchdown on Sunday night. The Packers weren’t supposed to be that impressive this year, but it turns out that they aren’t half-bad. Aaron Rodgers kept his cool in the closing minutes of the game with a scoring drive to win it. The first week didn’t bring too many shocking moments, but it set a pretty good tone for the next few months.

The Pittsburgh Steelers began their year just as they completed last year, with them making clutch plays that brings them back into the winning column to start off the year. Roethlisberger was able to get the kind of plays that have made him famous over the last years. After a Super Bowl last season, the Steelers are expected to be just as good as they were before. And it will be a lot of fun to watch them. But don’t count the Titans out. They have a good chance to make it back into the playoffs again this year for the first time in quite awhile. This game will help the team get back into the groove of playing tough competitors and it will be a lot of fun to see what ends up happening for either one of these.

The Detroit Lions now have a starting quarterback. Matthew Stafford has been selected as the starting QB for this season and we’ll have to watch to see if he can finally bring the Lions back into the winning column. Daunte Culpepper will be the backup quarterback for the time being. The coach of the Lions says that Daunte is back to his old self and will be back at starting at some point soon somewhere in the nation. The reason for the selection being what it is, is that Stafford already has a relationship with one of the main new receivers on the team. This is a team that will win at least a few games and possibly quite a few during this season. Let’s get ready for some fun in the NFC North.

I just wanted to spend some time talking up one of my favorite things in the sports world.Yes you can have your US Open tennis tournaments and all that kind of thing. On the other hand, the rest of us will be watching the NFL this year. What an exciting year it will be. We will get to watch Tom Brady playing once again. We will also get to see the Chicago Bears with their new QB Jay Cutler, trying to bring the team back to the NFC North title. But they will have to contend with Mr. Brett Favre. He is one of “My Favreorite Things”, although I’m not a Vikings fan. The western division on both sides are going to be much improved compared to the last several years. There are going to be some great competitions this year and you will be able to see some great fun this season!