Top Ten Reasons I'm Ready For Football Season

10. More than one sport I care about is going on. Time to get excited about something other than a losing baseball team and hope the Terps can play well enough to avoid giving me an anxiety attack.

9. It means I can stop paying attention to the terrible end of the Orioles season and actually start cheering for a team with a possibility of finishing with a winning record be it the Terps or the Ravens.

8. Hope. There is nothing better than the beginning of the season before any games are played when you can believe anything is possible and your team has a real chance of winning it all.

7. Fantasy Football. Any friendly competition is a good thing in my mind. Drafting a great team, making good trades, deciding to play and sit the right players all so you can rag on your friends makes football season even more enjoyable. Plus, you can get interested in games you otherwise wouldn't care about at all.

6. Trash talk. All of a sudden everyone's teams are going to have great years, of course, yours will do the best. Oh no, that guy from VT is out for the season, now Maryland will dominate them for sure.

5. Great rookies and big busts? Will Flacco shine again this year? Will Cutler help the Bears become a competitive team? Who will be a surprise super star and who will be an over hyped bust? The suspense is killing me.

4. Tailgating. Drinking outside and playing games like corn hole, beer pong and ladders while eating delicious, unhealthy food. Does life get any better?

3. Rivalries. In football so many of the games are in your own division in the NFL and in your conference in college. So even if the other team is not a true rival, it's always fun to beat up on someone else in the division. And hoping the Ravens will take some revenge and pound the Steelers this year is going to be fun.

2. There are entertaining college and/or NFL games to watch up to four days/nights a week.

1. The Ravens and the Terps are going to be awesome. Watch out.

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Higher Expectations Lower Spirits

Yesterday the Ravens destroyed the Bengals 34-3. And honestly, the score probably could have been a lot worse for the Bungles. The Ravens now have an 8-4 record. They can't have a losing season. And somehow, they are still in the playoff race and could still win the division. Yet watching them demolish the Bengals was not that exciting. It was merely expected, the Bengals are so bad, it almost takes the sport out of the game. As I watched the game, I realized there was nothing the Ravens could do that would surprise me. Mark Clayton throws a touchdown, Clayton's one handed TD grab, Flacco throwing for 280 yards, none of it was that surprising, though that one handed grab was pretty sweet. But if it was going to happen, it would happen against the Bengals, they really are just that bad.

I just can't get that worked up about this win. The Ravens should beat the Bengals. If you had told me at the beginning of the season the Ravens would be 8-4, with a rookie coach, quarterback, running back, and no real bye week I would have been ecstatic. But now my expectations have been raised. I know they will win games against the bad teams, it's just a matter of by how much.

I like watching Flacco progress, I like seeing my team do well. But it's hard for me to get excited about a win like this. Next week, we'll play the Redskins, then the Steelers, then the Cowboys and the Jaguars. All of those teams are legitimate competitive teams. It's possible the Ravens could lose the last four games. I doubt this will happen, but I could believe it. And yet, I can't enjoy that win yesterday. I now expect the Ravens to compete on a high level and watching them play the Bengals was like watching them play my high school team. If the Ravens didn't win, something would be seriously wrong.

This was a rebuilding year, and while I'm glad the rebuilding is going faster than expected, I don't know why I'm not more excited. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic, it's almost exam time and my stress level is pretty high, but I wasn't really wowed by this last game. I don't think I'll have to worry about this anymore, since the rest of the season should be good games or at least competitive ones. As a fan, I like to see a little competition. Is that too much to ask?

Photo: http://www.ravensgab.com/2008/07/28/paging-mark-clayton/