Well with the passing of the Superbowl so ends the season. Well at least from the prospective of us, the fans. Sure the NFL has become more or less of a year round league with news coming nearly every week in one form or another but many fans now start to gravitate towards other sports. Its a much different league from when I grew up. I can still remember scrambling for every bit of news I could get in the off season back then.
I subscribed to Dolphin Digest but while it was a weekly publication in the pre-season and during the season it was only a monthly publication in the off season. I would get it in the mail and read it front to back and then read it again several more times. I would also stop by the library at school a couple of times a week to read the current and back copies of the USA Today hoping to find any scrap of news about the Phins. Lets not even get in to the stacks of NFL previews that I purchased in my youth. Its not that I was a huge nerd like Nicky, I just really loved my Dolphins! Damn I hated the off season and God bless the internet (yes I am so old that when I was in school the internet was not a place that you could access news on your favorite NFL team).
There is of course the combine (February 22nd-28th) in Indianapolis this month. Leading up to that we should see some stories about guys from around the country training with this guy or at this place or another in preparation for the draft. I read recently that the great Michael Johnson, who owns a top flight training center (http://elite.michaeljohnsonperformance.com/NFL_combine_training/) here in the DFW metroplex is preparing for his annual influx of big name NFL recruits to come in and train for their next step in life. I am sure this sort of thing is going on all over the country.
Then of course a couple of weeks following the combine is the beginning of the league year for the NFL followed by the beginning of the free agency period ( Tuesday, March 13, 2012, at 4:00 pm ET). Then starts the lead in to the draft (April 26 to April 28, 2012).
Of course we will all be here following the every move of our beloved Dolphins but when you are not knee deep in the middle of the NFL season what sport do you spend the most time following and who is your team in that sport? Most of you that know me probably already know that mine is baseball and the Texas Rangers. What is yours?