Good News, Football's back

Today, watching the first NFL Sunday of the season, I was struck by several thoughts, some longer than others:

• If this football thing doesn't work out for Peyton Manning, he's always got his acting career to fall back on.
• I was watching the Bills-Pats game with my mom, a die-hard Bills fan, and the fumble recovery for the touchdown didn't even faze her. She just said, "That'll probably be the highlight of the season for us." Sure enough, she was right. I'd like to nominate Bills fans as the most downtrodden franchise in the NFL. Sure, they made it to 4 Super Bowls in a row in the 90s, but they lost all 4. Losing in the biggest game of the year 4 consecutive times has got to be more rough than not making the playoffs for a decade or so. After all, perenially losing teams don't expect to win. And now they're stuck with a QB from Tulane. Has there ever been a successful alumnus of Tulane? I think I'd better stop before any Bills fans reading this that haven't already killed themselves do so.
• The Bengals are going to argue that DE Robert Geathers shouldn't be fined for a helmet-to-helmet hit on QB Trent Green during the Bengals-Chiefs game, claiming that Geathers was pushed into Green. Upon further review, I think Geathers could have avoided hitting Green with his helmet. Geathers should be suspended for a game and fined $20,000. Last year, Bengals' coach Marvin Lewis was highly praised for turning around the downtrodden franchise. After the rash of arrests in the offseason, and now this dirty hit, it's obvious that the Bengals are a bunch of punks, in short, they've become the new Oakland Raiders.
• When Terrell Owens is behaving, he's the best receiver in the NFL. However, Drew Bledsoe is still Drew Bledsoe, so the Cowboys are going to have some problems this year. And also, alot of people are going to be calling for Tony Romo to replace Bledsoe, and I wouldn't be shocked if Owens was vocal in that party.
• Same thing with the Broncos. Jake Plummer has always been one bad performance from having the fans turn on him, and I think he might have had that performance today in a season-opening loss to the Rams. Although I don't like Plummer much, I think he'd still be better at this point than Jay Cutler, who just isn't ready yet. Next year is the ideal time to dump Plummer, who will promptly be picked up by the Raiders.
• The Cardinals' new stadium is ridiculously nice.
• Since the 49ers beat the Giants in the 2002 NFC Wildcard game, and Terrell Owens effectively destroyed the nucleus of the team, there hasn't been any reason to be excited about 49er football. The Dennis Erikson era was something that remains painful to think about. After watching the end of the 49ers-Cardinals game (I live on the wrong coast to catch the whole thing) I'm strangely excited about the state of the team. They're heading for a 5-11, 6-10 season, for sure, but I like the direction they're heading. I've turned around on Alex Smith. He's going to be a Pro Bowl-caliber player soon. Frank Gore is a poor man's Tiki Barber, and Vernon Davis is just a freak of nature. The defense needs to be shored up, but in a year or two this team will be good, I think.
• Actually, let me rephrase that last sentence: I'm calling a Wild Card berth for the 49ers next season.