On the first Monday night of the NFL season, ESPN has started a tradition of having a double header. I had 4 games to watch all in one night. Luckily for me, my wife was going to her bible study class so I wouldn't feel guilty for ignoring her to watch football all night long. I was feeling pretty sick anyway so sitting on the couch all day was probably a good idea. 

I didn't get to see any pre-season games this year so I didn't really have an idea of how good or bad the 49ers and Raiders would be this season. I usually like to see the Raiders lose. (I'm a Raider Hater.) I used to be a Raiders fan back before they moved to L.A. but I couldn't accept them back. It's like having your wife runaway with your best friend and then come back to you years later saying that she made a mistake and wants to get back together and you welcome her with open arms. I guess I am not that forgiving. Sorry Al Davis but you can't toy with my emotions like that. It's been several years since they moved back but I'm not over it yet. But I digress.... I had hopes that at least one of our local teams (cough, 49ers cough) was going to have a decent season. Whenever I have games recorded, I like to watch them in chronological order otherwise you get the ticker at the bottom of the screen and it spoils everything by showing the score of a game you haven't watched yet. It was time to watch the Niners and get a feel for the rest of the season.

Recording a football game is the only way to go. I don't think I will watch a football game live unless I am either at the game or it's the Superbowl. 30 second skip is the best invention ever! You watch a play and as soon as the play is over, 30 second skip, and the next play is about to start. I can watch a 3 hour football game in less than an hour this way. 

The 49ers looked decent. The defense played well despite being put in tough situations. Frank Gore ran the ball very effectively but the offense and special teams turned the ball over too many times. 5 turnovers to 0 takeaways and your team is probably going to lost every time. J.T. O'Sullivan didn't really impress me but he looked better than what I saw from Alex Smith in previous seasons. They ended up losing to the Cardinals despite playing even with them in the first half. It took about 45 minutes to watch this game with the DVR.

Next game was the Sunday night game, Bears @ Colts. Peyton Manning looked like he wasn't ready to play yet. The Bears defense looked good as usual but what really impressed me was their rookie running back, Forte. Bob Sanders managed to get one big hit on him but for the most part he ran all over the Colts defense and the Colts lost their home opener in their shiny new stadium with the new fashionable retractable roof. Another 45 minutes or so to watch this game thanks to the DVR. 

Next game was the first of the Monday night double headers, Vikings @ Packers. Aaron Rodgers finally got his chance to shine and get out of the shadow of Brett Favre. He had a good game but I wasn't in awe like the commentators were. The guy is good but one good game doesn't make him into Favre. For the Vikings, I always like to see Adrian Peterson run. This kid is a beast! Add his running ability with a running QB like Travaris Jackson and I think you have the core of a great team. They just need some better receivers. Jackson reminds me of another guy that used to wear #7 but played for the Falcons. Let's just hope that Jackson doesn't get into dog fighting. By the time I finished this game, it was just after 8PM. I watched 3 football games in less time than watching one football game without a DVR. Amazing!

Final game of the night. Broncos @ Raiders. Now it's time to see if the Raiders will suck as bad as I think they will. They always seem to load their team up with talent but everyone on the team underachieves. The Broncos start off the game with the ball and on their first drive.... TOUCHDOWN! The rookie receiver for the Broncos, Eddie Royal destroyed the Raiders secondary. He beat DeAngelo Hall (another talented underachiever and malcontent) several times and scored the opening touchdown. I knew from that first drive by the Broncos that it was going to be another long season for the Raiders. I caught up to live action early in the 3rd quarter and at that point the Raiders still hadn't scored. They were down 24-0 so I just turned it off at that point. It turns out that the Raiders managed to score 2 touchdowns in the 4th quarter but they also managed to give up 2 more touchdowns and a field goal. Final score 41-14. JaMarcus Russell and Darren McFadden weren't impressive at all. Just LOSE baby!

I still have hope that the 49ers can make a decent season out of what they got. If the offensive line can give O'Sullivan a little bit more time to throw, I think he can be effective. They have some better receivers this season but compared to last season, they could have had me suit up at WR and have it be an upgrade. They just can't turn the ball over 5 times a game and expect to win. The Raiders.... well they seem like the Raiders of the last 3 or 4 years. I have no hope for them to have a winning season. My predictions for this season: 49ers 7-9, Raiders 4-12. The Niners will probably just miss the playoffs and Mike Nolan will get fired. Mike Martz will take over as the head coach. For the Raiders, Lane Kiffin will get fired and Al Davis will have to eat his contract and guaranteed money. They will continue to draft talent and not quality players and take on disgruntled players dumped by other teams. 

One good piece of news from this weekend's football action comes out of New England. Tom Brady hurt his knee and will have season ending surgery! How is this good news? I hate Tom Brady. I don't care if he is a local boy from San Mateo. There is something about him that I just don't like. He is the devil. It's wrong of me to relish in another man's pain but I can't feel to sorry for him. He gets to stay home all season and get pampered by his supermodel girlfriend and collect his millions of dollars without having to work. Poor baby.

I usually play fantasy football with some of my friends from Salesforce but for some reason they didn't invite me to play this year. Why wouldn't they want to invite the defending champion for another season? Is it because they're jealous of my superior fantasy football skills? Is it because I won the first trophy to be awarded by the league? Is it because I no longer work there and they forgot about me? I think it's most likely because I won last season out of pure dumb luck. I managed to win the first pick in the draft and picked Tomlinson which helped tremendously. I dropped and added players based solely on trends in Yahoo! fantasy leagues. Whomever was a popular pick up that week, I got. There was no strategy or skill involved. And I barely won. At the end of the season, I gave credit to my cat because even the cat could have done what I did.