Deja Vu All Over Again, Ad Nauseum

About a month ago, I started getting excited for football season.

Baseball's always been my first love, but there are few pleasures as sublime as wasting away on the couch sucking down bloodies as the chili simmers on the stove on a Sunday afternoon...or better yet, hopping the Soldier Field Express bus 8 times a year at about 9 am and heading over to the parking lot for skirt steak, Italian beef and shots of bad brandy in between tossing the ol'rock around before heading into the stadium, plopping my fat ass down in the middle upper reaches of the north end zone and hearing the roar of 50,000 orange and blue clad fanatics screaming their lungs out for 3 hours as the snow flutters down.

I was especially psyched for the Bears upcoming season. First round pick Cedric Benson in the backfield, newly acquired Muhsin Muhammad lining up in the slot, a healthy secondary, a healthy URRRR-lacher (which kinda rhymes with linebacker) and Rex Grossman under center looking for his big breakout season.

Well, now King Rex is out for the year with a broken ankle, Benson's enlisted another agent as his holdout for QB-type money continues well into the preseason, Urlacher's got a paternity suit on his mind...and our starting QB is either going to be a failed Cardinals closer or the poor man's Drew Brees.

Grumble grumble.