NFL Preview: The John Report Preview, Including Super Bowl Picks and Awards

 

I love the NFL. I have been following the league for well over 20 years, with my first Super Bowl memory being the Bears destroying the Patriots when I was just 5 years old. I don't know what it was that drew me to it, but I absolutely loved it.

These days it feels more like an obsession. My TV is on NFL Network all the time all year long. I watch everything from the draft combine to the draft itself, then all the talk in the off-season and even most of the preseason games (at least the first half). On Sundays during the season, I am entrenched in front of my 40-inch HDTV with all my various bets laid out on the table, while flipping from game to game thanks to the best $120 I spend every year on the NFL Sunday Ticket package.

Nothing beats Sunday football for me.

There a lot of trends that people can talk about with regards to how the season will go. The one that jumps out the most is the fact that an average of five new teams have made the playoffs every year for the past ten seasons.

Think about that for a second. For 10 years, five of the 12 playoff teams have been new. Everywhere you look you can find previews written by people who follow the NFL religiously, yet they seem to pick the same 10 of 12 teams to return, if not more.

This year I'm going with four new playoff teams. It might be more. It might be less. It's interesting to note that the top four teams in the playoffs from the 2008 season (Tennessee, Pittsburgh, NY Giants and Carolina) all missed the playoffs in 2009. That's very rare. It's also proof that being the best one year means nothing the next year. The Saints went from no playoffs to Super Bowl champs. It's a tough league to figure out, that's for damn sure.

Before I start, I'll make some personal notes to catch you up since I'm assuming most reading this don't know my background as a fan.

My favorite team since I was about 5 years old was the ...

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