NFL: 2012, OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE GAME + WINNERS & LOSERS   

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“SPORTS NOTEBOOK” posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.

NFL:   WE can view the NFL topographically and then zoom in and move about freely, like kids upon a long and wide stretch of carpet, searching east, north, south, west, hoping to gain a sense of which NFL teams will complete a 16 game professional football season as winners, as teams with records better than eight wins/eight losses?

We can go deeper and ask which NFL clubs will participate in post-season matches for division and conference championships, and we can ask which among those teams will be 2012/13 Super Bowl XLVII contenders?

So, NFL-watchers, let’s review some basics, and I mean basics qualifying as an intro to NFL-101, starting with, “The NFL game isn’t for the tender of heart, the mild in spirit or the weak in body. It’s a rough sport, the game that is closest to real war, and it’s been in the vast American consciousness since 1920. It’s here to stay mostly in its present form, even if by mid-season there could be enough players from the league’s disabled lists to form several new teams were they in top condition.”

Any first time NFL observer should be told that the league consists of 32 teams that belong to two conferences, each conference comprising 16 franchises---the American Football Conference, and the National Football Conference. Within each conference, the 16 teams break out into four divisions, four teams per (East, North, South, and West, e.g., the Denver Broncos belong to the AFC West Division, along with the Oakland Raiders, Kansas City Chiefs, the San Diego Chargers).

Only one of the NFL clubs represents a region of the country, the New England Patriots, and only one club carries the flag of two states, the Carolina Panthers. All other NFL clubs represent U.S. cities, with only one representing a small city by comparison, the Green Bay Packers; and, there are two major city teams slotted within divisions that they are not part of “geographically,” the Indianapolis Colts being within the AFC-South, the Dallas Cowboys belonging to the NFC-East---but this doesn’t matter much, for the players on each of the NFL’s 32 teams are a cross-section of the entire country, the NFL probably being the sports league that is more across-the-land American than any other, given that Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association sign many players from non-U.S. origins, while NFL franchises rarely scout for players outside the U.S., which could change starting with the possibility that in the next decade London, U.K., may develop a football team for NFL inclusion (the U.K. is where the origins of football can be traced to).

The NFL game is akin to the simple and yet to that which frustrates: a great offense can be winning a football game, and then suddenly the lousy sibling-defense drops it. Want to lose a football match? Send in a defense that is slow to respond and hasn’t the radar that can put each defender where he needs to be to apply bulldozing strength in order to hold the opposing offense in place or to its rear.

Enough about “basics!” Last year’s Super Bowl winner? The NFC’s New York Giants, having defeated the AFC’s New England Patriots.

Since the first Super Bowl in 1967, less than a dozen teams have won it more than once, and only a few of these have won the Super Bowl two or more years in a row, suggesting that football skills stretch wide across the nation. Since year 2000, only two teams have won the Super Bowl more than once---the N.Y. Giants, and the N.E. Patriots. The Denver Broncos won the Super Bowl two years in a row before that, in 1998 and 1999.

The betting money this year is pointing at the N.E. Patriots being number one in the AFC East (Keep in mind that predictions re. NFL teams arrive largely from soothsayers examining the past, the way that military leaders study the last war to decide who can win the next, not a foolproof method since nothing ever stays the same).

For the AFC North, the more informed pundits are leaning toward either the Baltimore Ravens or the Pittsburgh Steelers, again teams that fared well in 2011. In the AFC South, the conservative guess is that the Houston Texans will lead, the risky bet that the Indianapolis Colts will erase doubts with top draft pick QB Andrew Luck on the field, and that the Tennessee Titans will finish the season in the AFC-South’s number three spot.

With regard to the AFC West, the division’s big story is the superb quality of game that will likely be shown by QB Peyton Manning, which can help to move the Denver Broncos to the top of the AFC and to the Super Bowl, the soap opera analysts hoping that the Broncos will meet the N.Y. Giants at the Super Bowl, meaning mano y mano for Manning brothers/QB’s Peyton and Eli, these analysts assuming that the N.Y. Giants will be leading the NFC East possibly from September forward---but these analysts need to take a second look at the Tim Tebow-reinforced NFC East N.Y. Jets and the reconstructed NFC East Philadelphia Eagles.

As for the NFC North, it could be a toss-up for numero uno involving the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers, salted for extra-actionable viewing by super-competitive QB’s Jay Cutler (Chi.) and Aaron Rodgers (G.B.).

Regarding the NFC South, predictions are hard to make, in that the division’s better teams are not that far apart in strength and skill-sets, of course the emotional has gone in the direction of the scandalized New Orleans Saints as a number one pick (everyone loves a comeback franchise, especially one from a town that has suffered from the effect of natural disasters). No way, however, can the Atlanta Falcons be set aside---this team has one of best defenses in the NFL).

Underscored finely by this year’s pre-game contests, the NFC West is also hard to choose the best from, for the division can easily be dominated by the San Francisco 49ers, the Arizona Cardinals or the Seattle Seahawks, teams without big differences regarding the effectiveness of their offense and defense squads, which puts the still unwieldy St. Louis Rams at the bottom.

Opening season game to watch---the Denver Broncos/Pittsburgh Steelers September 9 match. Seen will be a Broncos organization restored to serious contention from front office acquisition of the game’s best active QB, Peyton Manning, versus a team seeking revenge, having lost in the 2011 playoffs to Denver. Moreover, the Steelers are a team that will be relying heavily on defense while the Broncos seek points leverage via its Manning-led offense. Two major styles employed by NFL teams will therefore be easily observed, against which we can begin to ask which is best in today’s football environment (of course, just one of many questions that will keep surfacing during the NFL season and beyond)?

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