Football Is Here

With apologies to those who follow the Yankees, Phillies or BlueClaws
as far as I’m concerned its football season and baseball can take a backseat. Of course being a Mets fan accounts for part of why my attention goes to the gridiron and not the diamond.

On a couple of fronts the football season kicks off tonight. You have the NFL opener which is a rematch of January’s NFC title game as Drew Brees and the Saints host Brett Favre and the Vikings in New Orleans. As for the local teams….the Giants open the new Meadowlands Stadium Sunday against the Carolina Panthers while the Eagles visit the Packers in Green Bay. The much-hyped Jets have the Monday Night opener when they entertain the Baltimore Ravens in a match-up of two teams with Super Bowl aspirations.

The High School football season officially opens tomorrow night but for us at the Shore Sports Network it actually begins tonight with the season debut of the Saint Barnabas Healthcare High School Football Show. Like every week we’ll be live at Boston’s in Toms River from 7-9pm with the show to air on 105.7 FM and 1310AM, two of our sister radio stations. Ed Sarluca, Matt Harmon and Asbury Park Press writer Steve Falk join me tonight as we preview the new season at the shore.

Last season’s first weekend was interrupted by bad weather which forced quite a few cancellations. That does not figure to be the case this year and the opening weekend features quite a few games which could play a significant role in what happens this season. Friday night’s schedule includes Lacey at Wall, Brick at Brick Memorial, Southern at Red Bank Catholic and the game we’ll broadcast on the Shore Sports Network, Toms River East at Toms River South. Saturday offers matchups like Point Boro at Manasquan, Jackson Memorial at Manalapan, Toms River North at Howell and Lakewood at Holmdel with 83-year old Warren Wolf coming out of retirement to coach a Piners team that has lost 27 straight games going back to September of 2007.

Oh and if all of that is not enough the second weekend of the college football season includes Penn State at Alabama, Notre Dame versus Michigan and Miami at Ohio State. Are you ready for some football? You better be.