Here are some of my football predictions. These are things I think will happen sometime before the next NFL season kicks up (or slightly after). Some are long shots, but I thought this was a good place to get my ideas out. I encourage all comments, but please don't harass me if I say something you don't agree with. I tried to be nice in this blog, unlike my previous ones.

*Darren McFadden will be a Cowboy. (There is a slight bias here because I don't like the Jets and hope they don't land him, but I really do feel that Dallas will put a lot of effort into getting him.)

*Brett Favre will stay retired. (There's a lot of people saying that he'll change his mind, but if he does after all this media coverage, he'll just look like a ####.)

*Brian Brohm will have the best NFL career of any of the QBs in this year's draft. (I like Matt Ryan, but I feel like he's the next Matt Leinart. Great in college, decent in the NFL.)

*Aaron Rodgers will be okay. (Not great, not terrible...just okay. And in a weak division, he may even lead the Packers to playoffs, but I'll be shocked if their record is 10-6 or better.)

*Average kickers are going to begin being overpaid. (The Josh Brown signing was a good one, but they paid too much and now it's going to effect the whole league, but maybe I'm being to dramatic.)

*The Browns will make the playoffs as a wild card team. (They're still not good enough to knock off the Steelers, but that offense is going to be filthy next season, especially after they re-signed Anderson and signed Donte Stallworth. I didn't agree with giving Stallworth a 7-year deal, but that's another story.)

Feel free to share your own predictions. Hopefully mine won't be too far off this season :)

Congratulations to the World Champion Giants. As far as your fans go, most of you suck. Why the hell do you need to bring up spygate now? It's not enough that you won the most important sporting event in the world? You have to take cheap shots on the Patriots for something that never made any impact on any game? How pathetic. You're representing New York about as well as I'm used to hearing. Every team cheats and you know it, but because the Patriots were actually caught, you feel it necessary to offset that fact and put the spotlight on them.

Enjoy Eli Manning by the way. He's destined to be the next Brett Favre. He won you one ring, which is all he's gonna get and he'll continue to lead the league in interceptions for years to come.

I'm okay with Eric Wedge winning the Manager of the Year award. He's very deserving, taking a good team to the ALCS. Even as a Sox fan, I'm okay with Sabathia winning the Cy Young award too because I look at the stats and realize that the better pitcher during the regular season won the award.

I don't even mind that Mike Scoscia got more votes than Francona because he had to deal with a lot of injuries and still managed to win his division (though it helped that the Mariners blew it in the second half.)

My issue is that Joe Torre received more votes than Terry Francona for Manager of the Year. People can say that there's no reason to get upset since there are two other guys who received more votes than Francona too, but it just doesn't make sense to me. The Yankees flat out su**ed in the first half. A manager shouldn't get manager of the year votes for being a good manager for half a season. The Red Sox consistently stayed at the top of the division all year and yet Francona gets no respect from the MOY voters.

I'll end this by saying that I don't hate Joe Torre. In fact I think fairly highly of him. I just don't think he deserved the votes he received this year for MOY.

Any other year, who would you pick in the following match-ups? Andy Pettite vs. a Japanese rookie. Josh Beckett vs. one of the top-five pitchers in MLB history (Clemens). CMW vs. an aging Curt Schilling. As much as I love the Red Sox, I'd probably lean towards the Yankees most years, but this year I would pick all three Sox pitchers without thinking twice.

The Yankees lost something this year and I can't quite pinpoint what it is, but here is a solid fact: If the Yankees don't sweep the Red Sox this week, they will lose the division. If the Sox take only one game, the Yanks are still 7 games out. On the other hand, the Sox can clinch the division for all intents and purposes if they sweep. I highly doubt either team will sweep though.

My prediction is this: The Sox win the first two games and lose the third. I think Dice-K will finally get the run support he's been lacking in recent weeks and Beckett will dominate in a game against Clemens who hasn't been himself hardly at all this season.

A-rod will most likely hit a homer or two before the series is over. He is still the guy I think will win MVP even on the off-chance the Yankees don't make the playoffs.

On a somewhat-unrelated note, I've heard talk of Chase Utley for NL MVP? Not a chance. I don't really have a prediction for this, but a guy who misses a month of action doesn't win MVP unless he has an A-rod-like season.

Looking forward to the series starting tonight. Go Sox!

-------Mike G.

Okay, so lately I've been hearing my fellow Boston fans saying "Maybe the Yankees won't make playoffs this year." Keep dreaming. As Bombers fans keep reminding me, the Yankees always find a way to get into the playoffs. Though I must admit, I love it when they say "We're only 6 games out now," to which I have to remind them that they must've been pretty lousy for fans to be excited about being "only" 6 games back. (I realize they're one game back in the wild card race, but come on...If the Yankees don't win the division, prepare for a Sox fan celebration, the likes of which would resemble the 2004 World Series victory, not to mention a lot of anti-Yankee comments.)

As much as I don't like A-rod, he's a shoe-in for MVP, assuming the Yankees make the playoffs and even if they don't, he'll probably still get it. Who's his competition? Magglio Ordonez...maybe, but A-rod has twice as many homeruns and 15 more RBI. Ichiro? He'll end up in the top 5, but his numbers just aren't good enough to divert attention from A-rod. And Justin Morneau's hopes for repeating lie in a team that has slim-to-none chances of making playoffs. I'd love to see a Sox player win MVP, but we have a much better chance at winning the Cy Young, and even that I doubt happening.

Teams I feel sorry for - Mariners and Indians. They made valiant attempts to reach the post-season and Cleveland is actually leading in that division, but it's only a matter of time before Detroit takes the lead back. And Seattle won't keep the wild card lead nor will they catch up to the Angels. Nope...sorry folks...get ready for another ALCS featuring Red Sox vs. Yankees.

As a Sox fan, please understand how painful and difficult it is for me to give props to the Yankees. I hope that by doing so, they will do me some favors. 1. Please don't re-sign Jorge Posada. Every time I look at him, I'm reminded of his "unique" methods of hand-hardening. And he looks like a turtle. 2. Let Damon go. He's not having a good season for you anyway. 3. Fire the guy who does commentary for your games. The one who insists on saying "See ya" whenever someone hits a homer. He's more annoying than Joe Buck for crying out loud.

I will be forever faithful to my Red Sox, but I just felt it necessary to remind everyone that no matter how much we dream, the Yankees are going to the playoffs.

------Mike G.