Opening Kickoff

If you were out yesterday, you probably noticed that there were more people wearing NFL jerseys than usual.

And why not? It was opening day, after all.

TigerBlog was on his bike yesterday morning when he rode past a family out for a walk. The father was wearing an Eagles jersey, with No. 65 on the bike.

Lane Johnson is your favorite player? An offensive lineman?

That was a guy after Princeton head coach Bob Surace's heart.

In his entire life, TB has owned the jersey of exactly one football player. It was a long time ago, and it was the jersey of the most dominant player who ever walked on a football field.

Hint - it was a New York Giants jersey, No. 56.

If you're too young to know what that means, watch THIS.

For the opening day of the NFL season, TigerBlog watched the Red Zone channel, which 1) he doesn't usually get, 2) was being offered as a free preview for Week 1 and 3) which he might have to get. 

If you've never seen the Red Zone channel, it basically is non-stop football from the kickoff of the first game at 1 until the last 4:00 game ends. It never has any commercials, and it jumps around from game to game to game, depending on the situation.

If you're focused on one team or one game, then it's not for you. Also, if your head starts to spin easily, then it's also not for you.

On the other hand, if you aren't really all that invested in any one game, and you don't want to see any commercials, it's the greatest thing ever. 

It can get to be a little much after awhile, though it's at its best when all of the games start to get to the finish line at the same time.

This is an opening weekend like no other in NFL history. No, it's not the first time that teams didn't play preseason games, but you have to go back a very, very long way for that not to be the case. 

And even when there were no preseason games, there were exhibition games all over the place. In fact, when the NFL first started, it was hard to tell what was a real game and what was an exhibition game.

TB even remembers when the defending NFL champion would play a team of college all-stars in Chicago. That ended in 1976.

This year, because of the COVID-19 situation, there was no preseason. It's actually not the worst thing that ever happened, since nobody really wants to watch preseason games and practice and scrimmages are a much better way for player evaluation. Maybe not much better, but certainly good enough.

The other big issue this year is that there are no fans in the stands, or at least there weren't for every early game except the one in Jacksonville.

TB's rooting interest this year extends to the Princetonians in the NFL. 

He turned on the Red Zone channel shortly after 1, the first game that was on was Green Bay-Minnesota, and the first play was a running play on which the lead blocker was No. 45. That would be John Lovett, the two-time Bushnell Cup winner as a quarterback. Lovett, of course, was the quarterback for Princeton's unbeaten 2018 team, as well as one of the quarterbacks - and receivers and runners - on its 2016 Ivy title team.

Lovett, who won a Super Bowl ring last year with the Kansas City Chiefs, is now on the Packers. He was released last Saturday, immediately signed to the practice squad and then activated this past Saturday. The game against Minnesota was his first regular season game action.

Green Bay won a shootout 43-34, a game that wasn't quite that close. 

Stephen Carlson played for the Browns yesterday to start his second season on the active roster. It wasn't a great start for Cleveland, who lost 38-6 to the Ravens.

Jesper Horsted is on the Bears' practice squad, which is where he started last season before being activated midway through the year. TB is confident Horsted will again end up active. Either way, he's rooting for the Bears, who came back to beat Detroit 27-23.

Caraun Reid is on the Jacksonville practice squad. The Jags opened with a 27-20 win over the Colts. 

Tonight marks the season start for another Princeton alum in the NFL. That would be Jason Garrett, the offensive coordinator for the Giants. It'll be fun to be able to root for Jason without having to root for the Cowboys after all those years.