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What will we be saying about this season in the Spring? Like I've been known to say on occasion, I think we like to assume inevitability in hindsight. So, instead of asking what is going to happen this season, the real question is: What will have been inevitable? (Other question: Is that a real sentence?)

Has anyone ever seen the movie "Clue?"

This is how it could have happened...

There has been a revolution in football. Starting years ago with Peyton Manning's Colts and perfected by Brees' Saints and Rodgers' Packers, spreading the opposing defense out wide is simply unguardable if you do it right. There really doesn't seem to be any reason to run the ball anymore. In three years, there won't be any such thing as a running back getting more than 65% of the carries and the position will be the lowest paid in football because it has become so replaceable. People seem to like this new brand of football and the NFL sneaks a few more wussifying rules past us all until we're watching flag football on television by the time we all have grand kids. Green Bay repeats as Super Bowl Champions.

Pros:

- I'm OK with the Packers. I will not be rooting for them to win it all this season, let's get that straight. Green Bay is too smooth for me to like that much. That said, being really good and kind of boring is not the worst thing ever.

-Running back really is replaceable for the most part. Most teams already do this. There are a select few players in the league that deserve 80% of his team's carries (and Ryan Grant is not one of them).

Cons:

- I hate the rule changes. The fines are one thing. Keep fining everybody. If the guy keeps levelling guys into the hospital, fine his ass until he makes no money in the year. I don't like changing the outcome of the games. The last couple Bengal victories against the Baltimore Ravens have been directly aided by flags thrown basically for hitting too hard. If some committee decides that things are unsafe and/or unnecessary, fine. I just don't like when games are affected by a judgement call about what roughness is necessary in a game that is based on roughness. And that doesn't even cover the kickoff rules. The worst thing is, unless it's done soon, I don't think it'll be undone. It's hard to come to the negotiating table and say, "Let's repeal this rule that promotes safety...DOWN WITH PLAYER SAFETY!!!"

But how about this...?

Everything is cyclical. The time of five wide receivers on the field at the same time ends abruptly when Dick LeBeau and Rex Ryan have the exact same dream that gives them the key to defending the Packers, Saints, and Patriots. The league plunges into a primeval era of endless darkness where everyone is consuming some mystery "vitamin" that is undetectable and makes every defensive player into an X-Man. No mother lets their son play quarterback anymore and football ends in 50 years. Everyone dies. The Pittsburgh Steelers win the Super Bowl. The cycle ends.

Pros:

- I actually enjoy these periods of defensive darkness. Aside from the lack of overall talent, I enjoyed the couple of years in the NBA dominated by the Ben Wallace Pistons and the Ron Artest Pacers. Just suffocating. It's fun to watch these phenomenal athletes look flat out uncomfortable. Playing quarterback shouldn't be as easy as it seems right now.

Cons:

- Fuck the Steelers.

Here's what really happened...

All of this shit I'm saying are just minor undercurrents. Cycles that the league and all things very loosely follow. In the small picture, and one season is still the small picture, almost anything can happen. The team that gets the most breaks and the fewest injuries (and, of course, plays the best) wins it all. The Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl. REDEMPTION!!!

Pros:

- Affirms everything I think of how the world works (small picture, very little rhyme or reason to anything) and that's always good, right?

- Michael Vick wins a Super Bowl and starts building one of the strangest careers ever. Vick could end up going to prison for dogfighting and be a first ballot hall of famer and a Super Bowl Champion. I'm a Michael Vick guy.

Cons:

- What's the point of even thinking about cons? This was ALWAYS going to happen.