It has been a rare occasion the last couple of years that I’ve been able to sit down and watch college football on a Saturday and some NFL games on Sunday.  This year I have attempted to make it a point to watch at least one game each weekend and I have actually been able to see a few games most weekends.

As I was watching a recent game I thought about a blog I wrote a couple of years ago when the NFL had first started cracking down on helmet to helmet hits and how everyone started talking about the demise of the NFL as a hard hitting game.  Although there have been a few flags for ‘helmet to helmet’ hits that were probably not what the new safety rules were meant to protect against, I think that the game is much better off.

There are still big hits that happen every game, but you don’t see the needless attempts to take off a guy’s helmet.  As a fan I want to see the best players in the game from start to finish and with the head injuries that were occurring a couple of years ago that wasn’t always happening. Yes, I know that players are still missing snaps to get checked out on hard hits, but with the new rules it is less likely a guy is going to take a cheap shot and miss 4 to 5 weeks.

This football season has been a lot of fun to watch in my opinion.  Even though the Falcons are undefeated at the moment no team appears to be pulling away from the rest of the league.  Each of the top teams has taken a bad loss (other than the Falcons) and most have dealt out big losses as well.  The 49ers, Packers and Giants have all looked unstoppable at times and pathetic at others.  I have to admit I am really excited for this year’s playoffs.

At this point in the season my pick for the Super Bowl is a Texans vs. Falcons match up but Giants, Packers and Bears may challenge the for the NFC spot in the Super Bowl.  For the AFC I’m not really sure that anyone is strong enough to take on the Texans.  Patriots look weaker than I’ve seen them in the past five years. The Ravens looked good at first but they look horrible now.  That leaves the Steelers and Broncos.  I don’t count these teams out because of their quarterbacks but really they don’t look that strong either.

However, this could all change before the season is over.  It is only week 8 and there is a lot of football left to be played.