2009 NFL schedule released

Today the NFL regular season was released today. This day is one of my favortie sports day of the year. It is the first chance we as fans get to see when are favorite teams play their games. By last year's records the Miami Dolphins have the toughest schedule, playing teams with a combined winning percentage of .594 last season. And who might have the easiest schedule based on last year's records? You guessed it, my beloved Chicago Bears by playing teams with a .414 winning percentage. This number may be a little skewed considering the fact that they play the Detroit Lions twice every year and we all know the Lions finished 0-16 last season. The Lions have the 21st toughest, the Packers with the 30th, and the Vikings with the 31st toughest. The games against the Packers and Vikings are always my favorite games to watch during the year, but the one non-division game that is most intriguing to me will be the Week 6 October 18th game at Atlanta. It will be a Sunday night game and will be a re-match of last year's game at Atlanta, where the Bears took a lead with under a minute to go in the game and then Atlanta got a good kickoff return and then a big pass play by Matt Ryan to set up the game winning field goal by Jason Elam. The thing that grinds my gear is the Bears home opener. I do not mind that they are playing the defending champions Steelers. The thing that gets me going is the 3:15 start time. I hate the 3:15 games, especially when they are played at Soldier Field. In my opinion, there is nothing better than the noon kickoff games. Though the NFL season is still a few months away, it is time to start getting excited about the upcoming season. With the schedule being released today and the NFL draft in 11 days, football season will be here faster than you can blink.