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The opener shows up, and as the days get closer to the start of the Dolphins’ regular season, linebacker Joey Porter becomes more afraid he won’t be part of the team’s much-hyped New Beginning. He’s worried he’s closer to a career ending.

On Monday, the Dolphins spent some practice time working out for that opening game against the Jets. Porter missed the practice, again. He was visiting a doctor, again, trying to get a fix on a strange back ailment that has him, and the whole team, fearing he’s going to miss several games of this season, including the opener.

”He’s motivated, but he’s kind of upset that he can’t be there,” Said Jason Ferguson, a Dolphins defensive veteran. “And he’s worried he’s not going to be there that first day.”

The Dolphins are handling it by making plans for the extended absence of a player who has had trouble practicing on consecutive days and hasn’t been pain-free for almost a month. So on Monday, the Miami team put Charlie Anderson back in the starting weak-side linebacker spot. And they are experimenting with rookie defensive end Phillip Merling as the backup, a contingency that has the feel of a long-range answer to a long-range problem.

Meanwhile Porter is looking at a career that seems to be falling from his grasp even as he makes a courageous attempt to hold on. So Joey continues to search for a concrete answer to his mysterious back ailment. He has considered shots, surgery, anything to assure a part of Miami’s New Beginning. But unfortunately, it looks like the team will have to start without him.

Osi Umenyiora, one of the most important Giants as they attempt to defend their Super Bowl title, went down and injured his left knee in the second quarter Saturday night against the Ney York Jets. If the injury turns out to be serious, then The Giants will need to pick up the phone. There is only one player to call: Michael Strahan.

The Giants need to get to Strahan, one of their all-time favorites, and sweet-talk him back from retirement. GM Jerry Reese definitely has his number as one of his Fave Fives wrote New York Daily News NFL columnist Gary Myers.

“Brett Favre is playing for the Jets. Anything can happen in personnel,” Said Reese about calling Strahan.

On Saturday night, X-rays were negative, which means that Umenyiora, a dominant pass rusher, fortunately didn’t break any bones. He will have an MRI exam today, which will reveal if he suffered the dreaded ACL tear or tore his patella tendon. His knee locked up, which could be a sign of torn cartilage.

Doctors often can tell if it’s ligament damage by just feeling the knee. And Tom Coughlin said after the game that “The doctors told me there was no ligament damage.”

The MRI today could decide the Giants’ destiny in 2008. If something bad shows up that forces Umenyiora out for an extended period or for the season, then the veteran Michael Strahan would be the natural replacement.

If you’re up to date with the NFL, then you can see that the Patriots are in trouble. But if you listened to what they said in the wake of a third straight lackluster preseason performance, a 27-17 it wasn’t as close as the final score drubbing by the Eagles last night, then things are not as bad as they look in this awful, 0-3 preseason.

 While you would have expected self-flagellation after another unsatisfactory performance, the New England Patriots tried to strike a confident and positive tone after the game. Panic? What panic? “We can’t be up and down with the media and the fans because that’s what it is, it’s a roller coaster,” said cornerback Ellis Hobbs. “You can’t allow your emotions to set in especially so early in the season, where the season hasn’t even begun. I’m not necessarily saying we don’t have problems that we need to correct, but [it’s] having the sense and poise to say these problems can be corrected and it’s not too late.”Right now, as far as we’re concerned we’re 0-3 in the preseason, but we’re still 0-0.”

 But something is clearly wrong with this team, at least in the preseason, and it goes further than the absence of quarterback Tom Brady, who missed his third straight preseason game with a sore right foot. The team that former Patriots cornerback Asante Samuel returned to play against turn off no resemblance to the one he left, having gone from perfect to perplexing. The Patriots followed a familiar and distressing formula. Matt Cassel (8 of 14 for 60 yards, sacked three times) struggled, the defense was destroyed, and an overall lack of execution permeated everything New England did.

Shawne Merriman, the Chargers linebacker, has ligament damage and is evaluating his options, including the possibility of undergoing season-ending reconstructive surgery. He has missed more than a week of practice because of the sore left knee

Merriman said in an e-mail to the North County Times on Thursday night that the trouble is “a loose ligament and (I’m) waiting to get more info on what I need to do”

Shawne said to the San Diego Union Tribune that he has a torn posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

Five months ago, San Diego’s linebacker had a surgery to repair a cartilage damage. Surgery went well but he has had persistent pain in the knee during training camp. He traveled this week to Birmingham, so his knee could be examined by Dr. James Andrews, who performed the operation.

The Union-Tribune reported that Shawne was in New York on Thursday to see another specialist and was considering seeing a third on Friday to determine when or if he would play this season.

Merriman last game was in August 9 preseason opener against Dallas and has not practiced since then.

“It’s finding out what do I need to fix, what I need to do,” The linebacker told the Union-Tribune. “If it’s left up to me, I want to play football. I can’t stand sitting out.”

Norv Turner, the Chargers coach, said he hoped Merriman will be able to play on Sept. 7 when the Chargers open their regular season against the Panthers.

“I think he can be close to 100 percent and get back with some real good rehab work,” coach Turner said. “He’s been doing a great job with it and I think he just needs some more time right now.”

 Let’s guess a little about what teams may be in the Super bowl this year. Many big names have switched teams in 2008; can they help their teams to reach an elite status? What about Brett Favre; are his Super bowl chances better with the Jets? The Packers GM, Ted Thompson, hopes not. Here are some of the Super bowl contenders for the 2008 NFL season:

New England Patriots

New England tops this list in 2008. Forget about the astonishing loss to the Giants in last year’s Super bowl; a terrible end to a historical season. Coach Belichick will once more have his team ready to win.

Bill Belichick is too much of a genius to allow his team to lose again the way they did in Super bowl XLII. You better believe that the Patriots offensive line is working overtime in practice to avoid the humiliation that the New York Giants put them through. The Patriots will be attempting the impossible once again in 2008; they want to finish what they started in 2007.

San Diego Chargers

If there is ever a time for a team to win a championship, the time is now for them. Philip Rivers has a true receiving corps now that the wide receiver Chris Chambers is aboard. Chambers was obtained at the week six trade deadline in 2007 and played very well. He even excelled against the Patriots in the AFC Championship. He had seven receptions for ninety yards against former Patriot and elite cornerback Asante Samuel. With a full off season working with Rivers, look forward to big things in 2008 from these great players.

The San Diego team will again get marvelous play from Ladanian Tomlison and their defense. The Bolts are more prepared than ever in 2008; now if only they could get past The Patriots.

Jacksonville Jaguars

David Garrard, the Jacksonville quarterback, showed why the team let Byron Leftwitch go in 2006. Garrard in twelve starts threw eighteen touchdowns and just three interceptions in 2008. The Jaguars management thanked his efforts by giving him the richest contract in franchise history (six years, sixty million dollars). With the new receivers Jerry Porter and Troy Williamson; Garrard now has genuine playmakers to throw the ball to.

Everyone knows how tough the Jacksonville defense is, even with the loss of defensive tackle Marcus Stroud to the Buffalo Bills. The defense will hold its own in 2008. Now the question is if Fred Taylor can stay healthy for the third consecutive season. If the defense remains strong, and the running game is effective all year, The Jaguars are definite title contenders.

Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings will be looking to build upon the success of 2007 Rookie of the Year Adrian Peterson. With another great year from Peterson and the running back Chester Taylor, the Minnesota team will be chasing the championship too. If the quarterback play of Tavaris Jackson doesn’t make mistakes, the running game and offensive line will take care of the rest.

The Minnesota defense was pretty solid in 2007, ranking number one against the run; a key to any championship team. In 2008, it can only get better after trading for the 2007 NFL sack leader; defensive end Jared Allen. Everything that Minnesota needs is consistent quarterback play and they will be in their way to 2008.

It appears that the AFC is the dominate conference and has the most quality teams, or is it that the NFC relies too much on just one secret weapon? The three AFC teams previously listed all have the same thing in common; a star quarterback, a solid running game, and a powerful defense. The Vikings have all the requirements in the list, except for the star quarterback, maybe this is Tarvaris Jackson’s year to shine. Only time will tell!

It’s just the Cowboys’ second preseason game, so there’s no need to make a big deal about the final score, said the Cowboys’ offensive and defensive starters turned in a very weak performance on Saturday night against the Broncos.

In fact, that might not be strong enough. What about crappy? Or maybe you’d prefer atrocious. Well that’s the idea.

Whether you want to focus on the offense or the defense doesn’t really matter, because each was equally incompetent in the Cowboys’ 23-13 loss against Denver at Invesco Field at Mile High.

Most of you have watched enough preseason football to realize that the final score isn’t really that important… sure, the coaches and players want to win, but it’s more important for the starters to demonstrate they’re going to be ready to roll when the regular season starts.

And that is something that didn’t happen in Denver.

Matt Leinart says he knows how tough it will be to change his perception as a party boy.

Go to the next level In the Arizona Cardinals’ training camp for his third NFL season, he seems to be not worried about it, preferring to simply home in on football.

“People can think what they want, but the important thing I’ve always said is what my family sees and knows, and what my team and coaches know,” he said. “My team and my coaches know that I work my butt off that I’m in every day lifting weights, studying, even at home.”

Leinart’s had calmed down a bit before some photos showed up last spring on the Internet. One showed him in a hot tub surrounded by four young women. Another showed him holding a beer bong as a young woman drank from it.

It was a setback for Matt, the 2005 Heisman Trophy winner, who was selected 10th overall in the 2006 draft.

“We had conversations about it, and I know after the incident, it was devastating to him because he had worked so hard even after he’d gotten hurt during the season and then in the off-season not to put himself in those situations,” Coach Ken Whisenhunt said.

Leinart said he simply had to learn from it.

“It’s one of those things where it seems I can’t do anything,” he said. “If I go out to dinner, somebody might say something. It just got to the point where it’s not worth it anymore. There are some sacrifices you have to make being a quarterback in the National Football League.”

Leinart said during his heady days leading Southern California to the Bowl Championship Series title.

“Being the kings of L.A., S.C. football at the time really was like that, and we had a good time,” he said.

After being drafted by the Cardinals, he threw a big bash in Las Vegas that featured some close moments with Paris Hilton. Then news announced that his former girlfriend, Brynn Cameron, a Southern California basketball player, was pregnant with his child.

Leinart was making more news off the field than on it, but the arrival of a skillful young quarterback still elicited excitement in victory-starved Arizona.

Just five weeks into his rookie season, Matt became the Cardinals’ starting quarterback and had immediate success. But there were the inevitable downs too, and when Whisenhunt replaced the fired Dennis Green a year ago, Leinart faced a complete change in offense.

He recognized he was lost.

“Last year, I had no clue what was going on; this year, I feel like I do,” Leinart said. “I have a command of the offense.”

Whisenhunt reproached Leinart about not working hard enough at times, too.

“That’s natural with a lot of young players, not just the quarterback or not just Matt,” Whisenhunt said. “As you are in the league a little bit longer, if you’re going to be successful, those guys mature, and you’re seeing that with Matt.”

Then in the fifth game last season, he took a serious hit against the 49ers and was lost for the season with a broken collarbone. Then he spent the rest of the season on the sideline watching Kurt Warner play quarterback.

Warner threw for 3,417 yards and 27 touchdowns, but Whisenhunt named Leinart this season’s starter.

“He’s a lot more comfortable, a lot more familiar with the offense,” the quarterbacks coach Jeff Rutledge said. “When he gets in the huddle, you can sense that confidence, you can sense that leadership.”

Warner alleged he should be the starter, but that did not deter him from praising Leinart’s growth.

“I see a better understanding of what we’re trying to do,” Warner said. “This is the best I’ve seen him play since I’ve been around in three years.”

Rutledge, an NFL quarterback for 14 years, called Leinart “a great young man.”

“I love being around him,” Rutledge said. “What other people I think perceive is so much different from what I perceive, which the other coaches perceive, what his teammates perceive — because we know him.”

Once reluctant to talk about his son, Cole, Leinart is now openly proud.

“He’s running all over, talking and everything,” he said. “I miss him.”

A good season would go a long way on the road to erasing any negative feelings the Cardinals fans might have about Leinart’s additional activities. Matt said he was ready to take the good with the bad.

“I’ve always known being a professional athlete is tough, let alone being a quarterback in the National Football League,” he said. “There’s a lot on you, a lot of pressure on you to succeed. You take the glory and you take the falls, but that’s what I signed up to do.

“This is what I feel like I was born to do is play football, and I love it.”

Summer is about to end and the fans all over the country can’t wait for September 4^th, the date when the 2008-2009 NFL season starts. Everyone’s wondering if a Manning will take home the Super Bowl title once again, or if the Patriots can improve last year’s almost perfect record with a Super Bowl win. According to ESPN.com the New England team is the strongest one in the league, followed by the Colts and the Chargers with the Dallas Cowboys and the Jacksonville Jaguars rounding out the top five. Last year’s Super Bowl winners, the New York Giants, came in at number 6! Since the season hasn’t started yet it’s still anybody’s game, and you never know if your favorite underdog team will rise up to dominate the 2008-2009 NFL season.

The NFL consists of 32 teams that are divided into two conferences: the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC), each of which has four divisions. The NFL season is played during the late summer, through autumn, and into January.

The professional teams play 4 exhibition games, and then 16 regular-season games. Teams play one game per week, using the time between games to recover, do the training, and prepare for the next one. Each team receives one week without a game, known as a bye, during the season.

At the end of the season, each conference has separate playoff games to establish which team would be the conference champion. The top team in each division automatically qualifies for the conference playoffs and is ranked number one through three based on its win-lose record. Three additional teams, called “wild cards”, also qualify for playoff berths based on their win-loss record in the conference.

During the first round of the playoffs, the lowest-ranked wild-card team plays the lowest-ranked division champion, while the other two wild-card teams play each other. The losers are eliminated and the winner of each game advances to play one of the remaining division champions in the semifinals. Semifinal winners move forward to the conference finals, and the winner of that game is proclaimed the conference champion.

The winners of the National Football League’s championship are awarded annually with the Vince Lombardi Trophy, named in honor of former Green Bay Packers coach. The Super Bowl is the final contest of the NFL’s season. Each January the AFC and NFC champions play against each other for the title of The Super Bowl. This event reaches hundreds of millions of viewers around the world. The first Super Bowl took place in 1967, when there were actually two separate football leagues, the NFL and the American Football League (AFL). In this game, the Green Bay Packers of the NFL defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the AFL in what was called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. The game was renamed the Super Bowl in 1969.

Every April the NFL conducts its amateur draft, in which each team obtains the rights to the professional services of the best college players. Any player who is three seasons out of high school qualifies for the NFL draft, if that player renounces college football eligibility by early January. To decide the order of the draft the NFL goes by the win-loss records of the previous season, so that teams with inferior records draft earlier than those with better records. The NFL draft consists of seven rounds. Those players not selected in the draft can be invited to try out for a team and are sometimes signed to contracts as free agents.

The NFL is one of the biggest businesses for players, owners, advertisers, and other industries tied to the sport. NFL franchises generate huge earnings for host cities, in addition to promoting civic pride and national exposure. Therefore, cities often compete for teams, offering prospective teams bigger and better stadiums, guaranteed fan support, and various economic incentives. In the 1980’s three NFL teams relocated: the Raiders moved from Oakland, California, to Los Angeles in 1982; the Colts moved from Baltimore, Maryland, to Indianapolis, Indiana, and became the Indianapolis Colts in 1984; and the Cardinals moved from St. Louis, Missouri, to Phoenix, Arizona, and became the Phoenix Cardinals in 1988 (later changed to Arizona Cardinals). Several other moves happened in the 1990s. In 1995 the Los Angeles Rams became the St. Louis Rams when they moved from Los Angeles to St. Louis, and the Raiders returned to Oakland. The Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1996; the team was renamed the Baltimore Ravens. In 1997 the Houston Oilers moved to Tennessee and became the Tennessee Titans. Other teams have agreed to stay in their home cities only with the promise of new facilities in the future.

New teams are occasionally accepted into the NFL, and there is usually fierce competition among cities to be selected as the home for a new team. In 1995 two of these expansion teams began to play: the Carolina Panthers, in Charlotte, North Carolina; and the Jacksonville Jaguars, in Jacksonville, Florida. A new Cleveland Browns franchise began to play in 1999. In 2002, the newest expansion franchise was the Houston Texans, started playing at Reliant Stadium.

The trade of Brett Favre to the New York Jets ended the Favre era in Green Bay. The Jets now have their undisputed starter at quarterback. Would this be the year when head coach Eric Mangini and his team replaces New England as AFC East Champions?

If Favre was tired after the Packers playoff run last year, he really has a lot of work to do now in this one. Favre will have to learn a new system and a new lifestyle in New York. And he also will have to deal with the New York media.

Brett is no doubt a country boy, born and raised in Mississippi. Playing and living in Green Bay was just like the south, now he will be one of the most important players in one of the biggest cities of America. Could he get used to the bright lights and the busy streets of New York? Could he return the Jets to the Super bowl? Only the time will tell.

It’s going to be a big step for someone that was too tired to continue his NFL career back in March. Learning the new strategies and type of play of his new teammates won’t be easy. Favre will have train harder this year than in previous years with the Green Bay team.

The Packers got what they wanted by trading Brett out of the NFC. Tampa Bay was thought to be Brett’s new team but the New York Jets were more determined to land the future Hall of Fame quarterback. Depending on the Jets win-loss record and Favre’s playtime the draft pick traded for Favre could be between a first and fourth round pick.

 The Release Of Chad Pennington

With the new quarterback on the roster, Chad Pennington’s job in The Jets is over. Pennington was released allowing the young Kellen Clemens to assume the role of backup and learn a lot from a legend. This trade could help New York in the present and future. The pressure is on for Mangini to win, and adding Favre to the team could guarantee at least a playoff spot in 2008.

The New York team now find themselves as legitimate contenders to dethrone the New England Patriots. If the Jets can maintain a running attack, allowing Favre to do play action and roll out passes, the famous legend could be very successful in New York. He knows football so learning the Jets style of play shouldn’t be too hard for the experienced quarterback.

 Brett Favre’s New Offense

The New York team had a busy off-season and added some solid new and old talent on both sides of the ball. Favre will have a hard offensive line anchored by free agent guard Alan Faneca along with talented youngsters Nick Mangold at center and D’Brickashaw Ferguson at left tackle.

Having time to find the open receiver will not be a problem for the Jets new quarterback.

Talking about receivers, Favre has a few talented ones to throw to. Laveranues Coles has had a productive career and had six touchdowns the last year. Along with the veteran Coles are other younger and skillful receivers like Jerricho Cotchery, Wallace Wright, and Brad Smith. Not the best group in the league, but Brett has been successful with less talented receivers in the past.

Favre will also benefit himself by being able to hand the ball to the former Bears running back Thomas Jones. Jones is a great player that will take pressure of Favre to be perfect every week. Along with free agent fullback Tony Richardson, an excellent blocker, the New York Jets offense is enormously improved from the 2007 squad.

Favre: Playoffs or Get Out

The legend Brett Favre needs to have a solid year in The Jets for this trade to make sense. If he doesn’t play good and the Jets don’t reach the playoffs, the media in New York will strongly criticize Favre and the Jets. It is a love-hate relationship between the Jets fans and their professional teams, so by adding Favre to the team the fans expect the best in 2008.

If Brett does not perform well and the Jets don’t make the playoffs it could be Brett’s last year. There still two years remaining on Favre’s contract so his intent may be to finish out his current deal, but failure is not an option in the New York team. A 6-10 season and the fans will be asking for Favre’s release.

With this player’s ability though, he should have no trouble turning the Jets back into contenders. He better hope he can anyway. After all the fuss to play anything less than success will be highly scrutinized.

The quarterback Donovan McNabb had a terrific game, with a promising performance at Pittsburgh, in the first preseason game. His performance was only rivaled by maybe just one player, the rookie DeSean Jackson. The receiver/punt was continuously found blazing past defenders both before and after catches.

Eagles safety Sean Considine said:  “His ability to get open and his ability to get downfield have been impressive,” “He can create separation and the quarterbacks have a lot of confidence in him, which is pretty unusual for a rookie. It didn’t take long for them to figure out he was getting open.”

And it hasn’t taken long for Jackson to figure out the complicated West Coast offense of Reid and offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg.

“He is one of the faster ones that I have coached,” said Mornhinweg of Jackson’s skill to grasp the offense. “There are a couple of things that he has that allows him to be a really fast learner. First of all, he’s a natural player. His movements are just natural. He does a lot of things that we teach that he just does naturally. Secondly, he’s really sharp, football wise. Really, for him it takes him once or twice, maybe three reps, and he’s got it. He can take it from the classroom to the field very quickly as well. Those are all good things. We’ve got a long way to go and he’s got a long way to go. He’s done a nice job up to this point.”