What You'll Want to be Watching:

                                
                                 Hard Knocks: New York Jets

     In years past, I never really cared that much about NFL football, just as I still don't give two shits about the NBA or the MLB. Only one thing sparked my interest for the 2009 season: fantasy football. Never could I have imagined the entertainment and strategy of "owning" players and managing a roster, all culminating to the precious day of the week where I would go to Church and come home to beer and NFL Sunday coverage (minus the going to Church part). Fantasy football has become an extremely popular phenomenon, and more than 27 million players set their rosters every week. According to Wikipedia, the average "owner" spends about 9 hours a week on their rosters and strategy. Last season--my first season--was the wonderful time in my life when I was unemployed and collecting money from our great government (Thanks, Obama, for the extra $25 a week); I probably spent 20 hours a week on reading articles and making minor and significant changes, not including every Sunday (and Monday nights) where I would watch football from 12 noon to 11 at night. What does this all have to do with the HBO annual series Hard Knocks, about the training camp of yearly-revolving NFL teams, you may ask? Well, my friends: come late summer, when this season's focus on the New York Jets hits our airwaves, it will mark the very beginning of my defense of the fantasy football championship.
     Hard Knocks has been airing on HBO since 2001, though I never cast my eye upon it until last season's look at the Cincinnati Bengals. It's a very entertaining show (even if you're only mildly interested in Football), as it focuses more on behind-the-scenes looks at the team during training camp. It covers preparations for the upcoming season along with an inside look at the jokes, pranks, fights and injuries that occur in such a trying time for the players. Rookies and undrafted players also play a major role: how they respond to getting cut or making the roster and the toll it takes on their family and friends. These names minght sound familiar when they have a successful game early in the season and I easily beat you to the waiver wire to fill an empty slot on my team.

     The main reason why this season will be worth watching more than any previous is because of the man in the picture to the left: morbidly obese fat blob of a man Rex Ryan--also known as the New York Jets head coach. As you can see, he is polite, shy and quite a looker. Without such sarcasm he is an asshole, very outspoken and repulsively disgusting. Grade A Entertainment, in other words. He will say what he wants and do what he wants, all for our viewing pleasure. The other cast of characters is intriguing too: Hot Dog-eating Quarterback Mark Sanchez, Wide Receiver-destroying Darrelle Revis, and Electric Slide-grooving LaDainian Tomlinson. What it do, indeed. We couldn't have asked for a more pertinent set of personalities for some must-see T.V. Coming this late summer, I'll be watching and taking mental notes. You'll want to be watching too, so you wont have to succumb to the rape and pillaging of your fantasy team, courtesy of me, on a weekly basis.