The Sports Guy's NFL Season Preview

In true Bill Simmons fashion, the Sports Guy provides his Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down NFL Season Preview, with the excellent mixture of sports insight, humor, and variety of off-the-wall analogies. My favorite passage relates to what he had to say about the Eagles:

Meanwhile, everyone's counting out the Eagles, who absolutely REEK of Ewing Theory potential after T.O.'s departure and everyone acting like they were a 6-10 team last season, when the reality was this: Their defense was decimated by injuries; they lost McNabb in Week 7 and Westbrook in Week 8; and the T.O soap opera and residual bitterness from the Pats' Super Bowl destroyed what was left of their season. Well, who has an easier schedule -- @Hou, NYG, @SF, GB, DAL, @NO -- over the first six weeks? With the exception of Dallas and Chicago, who has a better defense in the NFC? Why is everyone so willing to count out a team with a quality coach that's loaded on the offensive/defensive lines? Couldn't they do a reasonable impression of the 2005 Bears, only with a much better QB? I love the Eagles this season. More on this later.

(Another reason to love them: After hitting rock bottom last winter, Philly seems to be in the middle of an under-the-radar resurgence, between Ryan Howard putting the Phillies on his back, the success of "Invincible" and "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," Billy King somehow avoiding a mindless Iverson trade (although there's still time), the upcoming Rocky movie, the hysterical M. Night Shyamalan book … I mean, all we're missing is the reunion of D.J. Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince at this point. I'm feeling good things ahead for the Eagles. Can't explain it.)

Other quick notes:

- Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I've been watching MTV's Two-A-Days to supplement the fact that I have skipped the newest season of Laguna Beach. The show is basically the same as that show they did when Dick Butkus became the coach of a high school team, except this team is one of the top squads in the nation. Same old nonsense... relationship troubles, trying to get recruited for college, 2 players who were friends get into fights, the team searches for their identity... blah, blah, blah. And yet I haven't missed an episode.

- For the Penn State crowd out there, set your TiVo's and DVR's. Thursday night, Sept 7 at 6:30pm - the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric will feature a segment on Joe Paterno and Penn State University. Apparently it's less sports-related and more focused on principles and values within the university and its athletics program. If JoePa is involved, then it's worth watching.

- That's it for now. Back tomorrow.