- The NFL season kicks off tonight with the Dallas Cowboys going to New York to take on the defending Super Bowl champion Giants. This marks the first time the NFL season has kicked off on a Wednesday; the usual Thursday kickoff was bumped up a day due to President Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte on Thursday night.
- The Giants will begin the defense of their second Super Bowl title in the past 5 years led by quarterback Eli Manning, who last year claimed that he was as good as Tom Brady, then went out and did all he could to prove it, throwing for over 4'900 yards (his previous best in a season was 4'021) and winning his second Super Bowl MVP by beating Brady's Patriots. Eli's stats are certainly helped by his duo of hyper-talented receivers, Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz.
- The Cowboys, led by quarterback Tony Romo and linebacker Demarcus Ware are also very talented but have seemingly underachieved for years, only having won 1 playoff game since 1996. The Cowboys went on a spending spree this offseason to help upgrade their defensive backfield after Nicks and Cruz (among others) scorched the Cowboys last year (including one game where they had 25 catches for more than 500 yards).
AL East heating up
- The New York Yankees lost to the Tampa Bay Rays 5-2 Wednesday night using home runs from B.J. Upton, Demond Jennings and Evan Longoria to beat the Yankees for the 11th time in 12 games in Tampa. The loss moved the Yankees into a tie for first place with the Baltimore Orioles, who won 12-0 against the Toronto Blue Jays, who have seemingly given up on their season following the news that their superstar, Jose Bautista, would be out for the rest of the year with an injury.
- This marks the first time since June that the Yankees were not in first place in the division by themselves, and the first time that the Orioles have been in this position this late in the year since the mid-90's.
- The Rays were facing a 10 1/2 game deficit on July 18th, but have been in this spot before, having erased a massive deficit to make the playoffs just last year, at the expense of the Boston Red Sox.
- Since two teams from each league get wild card spots this year, it's possible that all three could make the playoffs but is very unlikely as teams like Oakland and the White Sox/Tigers will probably take a spot. However, that just makes it all the more important to play well during the stretch and make it to the postseason, where anything can happen.
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