NFL: AROUND THE HORN; THE TIM TEBOW/JOHNNY FOOTBALL CONNECTION

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . NFL: AROUND THE HORN; THE TIM TEBOW/JOHNNY FOOTBALL CONNECTION. . .//. . NFL--- IT’s alive and well, the extravaganza that can dwarf all other events for seventeen weeks into the close of the year---this speaks to another NFL season that can be different than the last if we go by the fact that no NFL championship team has repeated in the following year since the 2004 and 2005 AFC East’s N.E. Patriots. Of course, the NFC West’s Seattle Seahawks will be working hard to change the fact, as will the AFC West’s Denver Broncos that dropped the 2013/14 Super Bowl to the Seahawks. Yet of the 32 NFL franchises, it’s likely that the same top-third of last season won’t be sinking toward lower strata early on. This is a crowd that includes the Seahawks, the Broncos, the Patriots, the NFC North’s Green Bay Packers, the NFC West’s S.F. 49ers, the AFC South’s Indianapolis Colts. And, of the first four games that each of these teams will be playing in September most will hold difficult minutes for pulling ahead as respective division leaders. The Seahawks will be challenged sequentially by the Packers, the AFC West’s S.D. Chargers, then the Broncos, followed by a Bye. So, and excluding the Chargers, in September the Seahawks will be up against high-end formidability X 2. As for the Broncos, its September games will also be up against the hard to defeat, Week One vs. the Colts, Week Three against the Seahawks, with Week two an expected win vs. the K.C. Chiefs. As for the Packers, they could be the Seahawk’s first victimized team, but they could recover Week Two vs. the N.Y. Jets, Week Three against the Detroit Lions and Week Four vs. the NFC North’s Chicago Bears. As regards the S.F. 49ers, this team begins the season vs. the NFC East’s Dallas Cowboys, then in sequence faces the Bears, the NFC West’s Arizona Cardinals and the NFC East’s Philadelphia Eagles, questionable a win vs. the Eagles. Now for the Colts---this team will be facing the Broncos and then the Eagles in the team’s first two weeks of season play, next the AFC South’s Jacksonville Jaguars and the AFC South’s Tennessee Titans, the first two challenges definitely for all that the Colts have to give, which could weaken them for Weeks Three and Four. But it’s the Patriots that could have the easier go for supremacy throughout September, Week One vs. the AFC East’s Miami Dolphins, Week Two against the NFC North’s Minnesota Vikings, Week Three vs. the AFC West’s Oakland Raiders, Week Four against the AFC West’s K.C. Chiefs. So, if the winning teams of last season maintain, if sustainability of their 2013 final positions actually occurs, then October will kick in with the Seahawks leading the NFC West, the 49ers a close second, and the Packers atop the NFC North, with that statement “anything could happen” underscoring which team will be leading the NFC East and NFC South, the informed guesses citing the Eagles or N.Y. Giants atop the former, either the Saints, Falcons or Panthers leading the latter. . . As for leading the AFC West by October, that’s likely the Broncos slot. And the wise bet for AFC East’s number one slot starting October lists the Patriots, with AFC North’s numero uno being either the Baltimore Ravens or the Cincinnati Bengals, and starting October the AFC South will probably be led by the intrepid Colts. . . TEBOW/JOHNNY FOOTBALL . . . FROM excessive flamboyance, from the forced resonating of one’s ego across the nation, athletes learn that such becomes a big bust, a career breaker, unless they can pull it off like Muhammad Ali, who could always match his away-from-the-sport actions and whatever words poured from his mouth with high and winning skills in the ring. But nearly all professional athletes that perform attention getting antics, whether to ratchet up publicity or for some other reason, they become poster kids for the problem of overreach, in that their skills on the field fail to match what’s been promised. Humbled by it or not, they are dumped by their sport and the fans that swallowed the drink of false expectations nearly at Mach-5 speed. It happened to Tim Tebow, and it seems to be happening to Johnny Manziel, a.k.a. Johnny Football, a nick way too audacious for a person hoping to take on the job of captaining an NFL offense, which, by the way, is no longer Manziel’s opportunity, he’ll be the Cleveland Browns “back-up” QB. Right now, Tebow is beyond being fried, he’s out of the NFL largely from too much media attention and because afield he couldn’t match ballooning expectations. From his behavior, Tebow became a sort of rock star, less so the professional athlete who can reach or exceed expectations. Manziel can avoid that fate by matching personal behavior to the gravitas of the job he’s been given, surely by eliminating any words delivered publicly that aren’t that of a true football player. College greatness, Heisman trophy, fantastic! But that’s the past, the NFL is the uncertain and often unforgiving future for all who enter. END/ml.