Yeah, we know it's a little late, and the season starts a month away. But the crazy success of the NBA threads (thanks very much to Rated-R Superstar's yeoman work), plus the smashing hit that was the Confederations Cup has led us to thinking, "Hey, why not do this for all of our favorite sports?"

Indeed. Why not. Let's start with the king of kings, the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE.

via www.enjoyhiphopresponsibly.com

Ultimately, I'm happy the NFL lasts only four months, because if it lasted any longer I'd have to head down to ESPN and set the premises on fire from all the awful, awful Monday Morning QBing they throw our way. Otherwise, for the cost of only nine-twelve hours a week, it's sheer bliss. It's a sport of commodity and economics, the perfect mix of adrenaline, beer, marketing, gridiron mayhem, and fall Sundays. It's going to be a long time before anyone knocks the NFL off the mountain in terms of the most popular American sport.

The NFL offseason is not really the most exciting thing to deal with--it's hard to measure the level of transactions and how they affect the team; draft picks can't be expected to make immediate impact. But there is always some thing pigskin-related to talk about every week or so (Steve McNair, TO in Buffalo, the crazy draft).

I figure this will be dominated by Raiders/49ers talk, but let's also try to talk about what you expect from teams and players this season. Which teams did the best to improve themselves this offseason, and which teams went the other way? Who do you think will rise to the top? How do you feel your team will do (Me--Buffalo: 9-7, barely miss the playoffs)? What games are you looking forward to? What players do you want on your fantasy team? How's Madden working for you? Anyone read Football Outsiders? And so on.

NOTE: Bonus points if you can find ways to talk about Marshawn, Aaron, Desean, Nnamdi, etc!

Oh, and of course, our favorite redneck (plus everyone's favorite receiver!) should be discussed all the time!

Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress says he has watched video of quarterback Brett Favre throwing a football and his motion "looked fine" to him.

Childress spoke to reporters on Sunday at a charity event for former Vikings center Matt Birk. He told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis that he has not spoken to Favre in a couple of weeks.

The coach has watched video of Favre working out in Mississippi and says, "I liked his throwing motion, the little bit that I saw on tape."

Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice, however, is skeptical about Favre's latest potential comeback. In an interview with the Star Tribune, Rice said the move could "backfire" on the Vikings.

"You have to look at the scenario that happened in New York," Rice said. "If he pretty much distances himself completely from the players, then all of a sudden you're going to divide the players because a lot of the players are going to say, 'Hey, Hey, Tarvaris Jackson should be in here or Sage [Rosenfels].' You don't want this to divide the team. So this could really backfire."

There has been an ongoing discussion of whether to treat these threads like a DBD or not. Although we definitely would like for it to go this way, some stories just aren't really interesting to Cal/Bay Area fans in general. So we've offered this compromise (if you guys don't like it, email us and let us know).

Single stories that can be posted on their own
*Big stories, like ESPN frontpage news
*Stories on the Niners and the Raiders (since this is a Bay Area site)
*Stories on Cal Bears alum (actually, as a Cal site, these stories should probably be rec’d too).

Minor stories which can be bunched together
*Signings/waivers/trades of non-Niners/Raiders/star players, there are a thousand waivers and signings and I doubt anyone here cares much about them.