The first day of the NFL preseason is one of the strangest days in
sports for me.

With everyone’s sentiments of “FOOTBALL’S BACK!!!” I find myself largely apathetic in comparison to the masses. The regular season? Sure! Give me the first day of games that actually matter, the first day of fantasy football, and doing nothing but watching football all day.

But man, this preseason game just doesn’t do it for me.  The first team spends about one quarter on the field and calling the offensive strategy “vanilla” would be an insult to vanilla beans and vanilla ice cream everywhere, not to mention that NFL free agents have had a total of 5, count ’em, 5 practices together.

This game probably will be ugly, with a lot of mistakes on both sides. Even with all of that, I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t interested in how Kevin Kolb will gel with Fitz, Heap and the rest of the Cardinals’ offense, but the preseason can’t be an accurate measure whatsoever.  So, yeah, I’ll at least have the first quarter on the TV today when the Cards take on the Raiders, if nothing else to see the first few plays, and have something to talk about at work the next day.

Since football hasn’t started its “real” season yet, why not turn your attention to the 1st place D-backs before football consumes your life? This team has heart, flair, and excitement nearly every game.

Justin Upton is an MVP candidate, Ian Kennedy is a borderline Cy Young candidate, and the management of this team is fantastic.  The people of Phoenix need to get out and see this team, and I definitely plan to a few times in the rest of this season.  The team’s recent come-from-behind wins against the Astros have been simultaneously some of the most exciting and concerning games in recent memory (remember the Astros are the worst team in baseball) and there are many more great games to come.

Football may have stolen baseball’s title as “America’s pastime” in recent years, but having your team in a pennant race is one of the most exciting things in sports.  Since football is more than a month away, I fully recommend giving the D-backs a chance. Break the football fever, people; it may be “back,” but the real thing is still a month away.