Looking at Upcoming 2016 Football Season

I'm looking forward to the new football season, both professional and college.  In the National Football League, the three Florida teams I traditionally root for...plus the New York Giants...have all had traditionally lousy seasons last year.  Only New York, of which I've been a fan ever since they ruined my nemesis New England's quest for a perfect season in the Super Bowl following the 2007 season, has had anything resembling success during the past ten years.  And the Giants haven't done anything, either, since 2011.  I've followed the Miami Dolphins, having grown up in the vicinity, since 1968, their third season in the league.  After Don Shula signed on as their head coach in 1970, they rose quickly to the top and won two out of three Super Bowls in the early 1970s...including their perfect 17-0 season in 1972.  Since then, they went to two Super Bowls in the 80s, losing both...and then nothing after that.  Tampa Bay has the most recent success of the Florida teams, having won the NFL championship for 2002...but have languished in mediocrity during the last several years.  And don't even get me talking about Jacksonville, which has probably the worst overall record in the NFL for the past decade.  But back to the Dolphins...

Miami has some well-founded hope heading into this 2016 season, having sacked indifferent Joe Philbin last season and hiring Adam Gase, whose exuberance may be just what the doctor ordered for this talented-but-well, "sick" team.  Maybe, just maybe, they'll be good enough to sneak into the playoffs for the first time in eight years.  Notice that I'm not making any predictions...

In college football, I am a University of Florida fan.  That should be no surprise...after all, I'm a UF alumnus and have been living here in Gainesville going on close to 40 years.  This will be Gator head coach Jim McElwain's second season with the team.  Last year Florida managed to win their SEC East Division, but sputtered horrendously on offense during the last half of the schedule...which team will show itself this year, the strong first half of last year, or that debacle ending it?  McElwain seems to have done his homework during the off-season and is presenting a different offense with some potentially explosive new stars.  Should be exciting to follow them this year...

Regardless how my teams do, I have to admit to not following football as much as I have in years gone by.  Maybe it's because soccer has attracted my interest more, and maybe it's because the sport just doesn't have the same appeal anymore.  It is very dangerous to play, and I don't care for all the debilitating injuries that seem to be regular, expected occurrences.  Ball sports are games, not war...but football in some ways resembles the latter more than the former...