The NFL Sucks When the Packers Don't Play

Today is one of those days when you have to be thankful such a thing like fantasy football exists.

The weekend always has a different feel to it when the Packers don't play until primetime on either Sunday or Morning, but the world feels completely different when the Packers don't even show up on the schedule for the week. Instead of getting all dressed up in my Mike Sherman sweater-vest anticipating the game with a handful of my buddies, I'm sitting here in a Tampa Bay Mutiny jersey with Bear as we watch our laptops more than we watch the games.

Here's our game lineup for today, as we only get four games per week because we have cable. We have the Bucs/Cowboys game on FOX, which for some reason just doesn't excite me. We could flip over to the Jets/Chiefs game on CBS, but I'm still not really in a mood to watch Favre. Giants/Steelers is really all we have to look forward to today, especially with no Sunday night game because of the World Series.

Not to fuel the beast that is the Jimmy Kimmel commercials, but maybe it is time we upgrade to DirecTV. That way, I could watch my risky fantasy start of Matt Ryan take on the Eagles. I could watch upstart teams like the Bills or the Cardinals try to maintain their momentum. Or I could watch the Chargers/Saints game from London, which was really the only game I wanted to watch today.

To bring up Bear again, we had an interesting conversation the other day. I was telling him how I wanted to watch the London game simply for the reason that it's being played in London. Bonus that the game is a matchup between two teams that desperately need to win, but I wouldn't care who was playing, I just want to watch a game that's being played on a different continent.

I like seeing the big game feel in a week eight game. I want to listen to the crowd, and hear who they end up getting behind. I want to see all those random shots of the fans wearing any type of NFL merchandise they could scrounge up. But no, all of us Cheeseheads are still so in love with Favre that the TV stations here put in special requests to watch Jets games. On the contrary, if it was the Jets/Chiefs game being played in London, well then either way I'd probably want to watch that.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that all these things I am complaining about would be so irrelevant if the Packers were on this week.

But Matt Ryan just threw a 55 yard touchdown, so maybe today won't be that bad after all.