My How Things Have Changed!

What the heck is going on in the NFL? Yeah, the Patriots are still head and shoulders better than everyone else, in fact, they're probably the best sports dynasty since the Bulls of the 90's, but what has happened to potential SuperBowl contenders in Chicago and New Orleans? And just as sure as the Bears and Saints have fallen apart early, teams like Green Bay and Dallas have emerged as teams to be reckoned with.
Such is life in the National Football League. Blink, and you'll miss a chance to see a long-term winning streak by your favorite squad. Witness the Saints or Bears. Gone is Thomas Jones, and BAM!!! the Monsters of the Midway all of a sudden aren't so darn ferocious. The honeymoon period in New Orleans ends after the excitement of a return to the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina, and BAM!!! the Saints are getting smoked by the Bucs and Titans. It's unbelievable how short your window in the NFL to compete really can be. It slams quite quickly. Let's face it, it's an extremely violent game, and players get hurt. (See Mike Brown, Dusty Davoracek, Tommie Harris, Deuce McCallister.) With injuries and a stringent salary cap, a contender can become a pretender awfully darn fast.
On the flip side, you've got teams like the Packers and Cowboys. Brett Favre looks like a 25 year-old kid again who's having the time of his life in 2007. Tony Romo and a happy(temporarily) Terrell Owens have made America's Team, well, America's Team once more. It can happen in an instant. Stay healthy, get good play, have a few rookies step up, and all of a sudden you find yourself back in contention.
Since early February, all of seven months, the Bears went from SuperBowl XLI to the toilet bowl in the NFC North. More so than any other sport, pro football can rip your heart out in an instant. And with only 16 regular season games, you can be out of it a month in. It's not like baseball, where a bad week, shoot, a bad month can be rectified two months later when there's still 100 games left to play. So my advice is this, if your team is winning, and staying healthy...appreciate it for all it's worth. You just never know when the party can end. Will the Bears bounce back? Perhaps. Can the Saints find the magic from 2006? Perhaps. Should the Packers make reservations to SuperBowl XLII? Perhaps. That's the point, in two weeks, Green Bay could fall apart, and Brian Griese could be a cult figure in the Windy City.

Don't bet against it.