The 2016 NFL Season Is Here. Finally.

The NFL offseason doesn't seem so long when you're in the middle of it. The Scouting Combine, Free Agency, the Draft, OTAs, and mini-camps. One significant offseason event leads into another. It all moves pretty fast and the anticipation of a new season builds with each step. That anticipation peaks with training camps and the preseason. By the time those practice games finally end it seems like it's been forever since we last had some decent football. The 2016 NFL Season is finally here.

The 2016 NFL season actually kicked off last Thursday. That still doesn't feel right. Thursday Night Football still doesn't sound right. No matter how much I love football I still find the professional version best served on Sundays. Fall Sundays are for the NFL. The NFL is for fall Sundays. At least last Thursday's game was a good one. If the midweek games continue as they have in recent seasons it might be the last good Thursday night game that we see. 

As a Minnesota Vikings fan, this is a season with grand expectations. A talented football team, an outstanding head coach and a spectacular new stadium generated football hope the likes of which I've never seen in Minnesota. Those grand expectations took a serious hit 11 days ago when quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was lost for the season to a serious knee injury. Three days after that sad day the Vikings traded a first round pick and a conditional fourth to the Philadelphia Eagles for Sam Bradford. He isn't expected to start today but he should start soon. Probably next week against the Green Bay Packers in the game that opens that beautiful new stadium. The team is still talented. The head coach is still outstanding. And the stadium is still new and spectacular. The football expectations are still high in Minnesota. The 2016 Minnesota Vikings season should be a fun ride. 

The deflategate nonsense has clouded two offseasons. It's simply stunning that this trumped-up bit of nothing lasted more than a day. Two offseasons! It finally ended when Tom Brady reluctantly gave up the fight of his four-game suspension. He's out of the plans of the New England Patriots for the first quarter of the season. We'll see if third-year thrower Jimmy Garropolo can hold down the fort for the annual Super Bowl contenders. 

The NFL returns to Los Angeles. With profound apologies to the fans of the St. Louis Rams, the Los Angeles Rams just feels right. This franchise has played in three cities. Cleveland, Los Angeles, and St. Louis. They may have been in the latter for the last twenty years, a significant time, but they were in Los Angeles for the previous fifty. I grew up knowing the Rams as the Los Angeles Rams. It took nearly all of the last twenty years to get used to calling them the St. Louis Rams now they are back in Los Angeles. 

Hopefully the Rams move is the last franchise move that we see, The San Diego Chargers have to stay in San Diego. Not only do they belong in San Diego but Los Angeles has to prove that they can support one team before another is forced upon the city. 

Can a super talented Arizona Cardinals team get back to the Super Bowl? Can Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer carry his MVP-level regular season play into the postseason? 

The same question hangs over the Cincinnati Bengals and quarterback Andy Dalton. The Bengals have been one of the most talented teams in the league for a couple of seasons but they have yet to win a playoff game. 

Are the Cleveland Browns finally headed in the right, but unique, direction?

Are the Jacksonville Jaguars as talented on the field as they are on paper?

Can Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck rebound after an un-Luck like, injury-plagued season? 

How about that rookie backfield in Dallas? 

And that new, pricey New York Giants defense? 

Those are just a few of the questions entering this NFL season. There are so many more? The next 17 weeks should answer some of them. The postseason will answer the rest. 

The 2016 NFL Season is finally here.

Go Vikings!