With the exception of the two Monday Night games, Week 1 of the 2008 NFL season is in the books, and as we've come to expect from Week 1 of every NFL season, nothing is as it should be, and we're all wondering which surprise team is going to emerge as the NFL's next unstoppable killing machine.

My brother and sister and I play Pro Football Pick 'Em on Yahoo! Sports, a game in which you pick the winner of every NFL game each week and assign confidence points to each pick based on how likely you think it is that your teams won't blow it for you. Last year I was already out of contention after five or six weeks, and I'm pretty sure there was one week where I only got four of fourteen games right, which is even worse than I would have done if I had let a pile of dirty clothes make my picks for me. I finished dead last by what must have been more than a hundred points, and this year I have vowed to remain in contention at least until Orlando Pace has his next season-ending injury.

Unfortunately, another crazy Week 1 has me in last place yet again. It was going well at first, but then all the teams I picked to win didn't--Buffalo, Baltimore, Atlanta, Carolina, and Chicago all won in what I consider to be surprising upsets, three of which were against potential Super Bowl participants San Diego, Indianapolis, and Detroit. Wait, scratch that last one. It's hard to make anything out of the first week, but I'm sure there are some Colts and Chargers fans out there who thought these games were in the bag, and now they're nervously yanking on their collars, wondering what happened to their deadbeat teams. Although, I don't think they should be too upset--the Chargers didn't really get going until the fourth or fifth week last season and still made it to the AFC Championship Game.

I always find myself in a moral dilemma by picking games every week, though. I don't like a lot of good teams, and I always end up having to pick those teams to get points. Now I can't decide if I want them to win so I get some points, or if I want them to lose because I don't like them. What am I supposed to do?!

However, unless somebody scores no points in one of the Monday Night games, I correctly picked the St. Louis Rams to score the fewest points this week. Normally this would disgust me, but since they were playing the Eagles, I can't complain. The Eagles have a much bigger test next Monday night against Dallas, and the Rams get the Giants at home. I'd give the Rams 20 dollars if they could hang a loss on the champs, but I have a feeling those buckazoids will be remaining safely in my wallet.

Oh, and Tom Brady allegedly has a serious knee injury and, as of the posting of this blog, may be out for the season. But even if Brady really is done for the year, Patriots fans need not worry--backup quarterback Matt Cassel will become the next Tom Brady and lead the Patriots to a Super Bowl championship in the wake of Tom Brady's injury, much in the same way the original Tom Brady led the Patriots to a Super Bowl championship in the wake of Drew Bledsoe's injury. Or, if that doesn't happen, Brady will return to action with a bionic leg and lead the Patriots to a Super Bowl championship, then go back in time and win last year's Super Bowl, as well.

These topsy-turvy and unpredictable swerves are all part of what makes the NFL so great, though. Your team is on top of the world, and then all of a sudden, some 4-12 saps come along and score eighty touchdowns against your team on their way to a Wild Card berth. Meanwhile, your team loses its three star players to injury and find themselves in the cellar by Week 3. You never know how it's going to turn out, except that New England is probably going to be somewhere near the top, and Kansas City is probably going to be looking for help.

Lastly, a note on baseball--it has been extremely discouraging to see the Cardinals continue to blow saves and waste a golden opportunity to gain ground in what is coming a more and more futile effort to get into the playoffs. However, I'm still not ready to write their eulogy--there's still a chance that we are seeing the beginnings of a massive Milwaukee collapse, which will pave the way for the Cardinals to sneak in…if the Phillies also collapse. The whole 30 blown saves thing is pretty upsetting, though. My friend Rick suggested earlier this season that the Cardinals should have traded Jason Isringhausen for a box of rats, which would be released into the opposing team's clubhouse at Busch Stadium to frighten, disgust, and irritate opponents into not playing well.

Or they could have traded him for some choice cuts of steak like they do in the minor leagues. Either way, the blown save count would be under 30 if they had.