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The Titans enter as favorites on Sunday’s game at Baltimore, and thanks to an undefeated record, they are the major revelation in the NFL.

“We’re still the underdogs, we’re definitely still the underdogs.” Titans’ linebacker Keith Bulluck said.

“We’re 4-0. OK, that’s cool,” he said. “But we lose one game, and then people are off the bandwagon.”

That may be true, but for now, the Titans are one of the greatest teams of the league.

“It’s too early to say we’re not the underdog,” Bulluck said. “Five weeks ago, people were picking Houston to finish ahead of us in our conference. As far as I’m concerned, and the rest of us are concerned, we are the underdogs.”

However, some Titans players believe the team has proven itself to the NFL, fans and analysts, as shown by message boards and recent inclusion in various power rankings. Those players feel the Titans must find a different person, one that could help them finish the regular season strong.

There are players like Bulluck still, who are hanging on to the underdog role. It looked so good on this team, and it played the role well but they need to change their mind about it. The Titans didn’t complain about respect - except when asked if they weren’t getting enough of it.

It may have given some players “more of an edge,” linebacker David Thornton said.

Now that the Titans (4-0) are one of only three undefeated teams, those days are over. They’re getting more respect.

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.

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.