It’s the early odds on team’s chances to make the Super Bowl. What are your team’s chances? Just look below. My team, the Falcons, well, they’re pretty much as long a shot as there is, and at 100-1, I think that’s kind of unfair (this one should be somewhere in the thousands or millions). Pats at 7-2? Chargers at 7-1? I like that action. . .

Arizona Cardinals 50 - 1
Atlanta Falcons 100 - 1
Baltimore Ravens 75 - 1
Buffalo Bills 50 - 1
Carolina Panthers 40 - 1
Chicago Bears 35 - 1
Cincinnati Bengals 60 - 1
Cleveland Browns 25 - 1
Dallas Cowboys 6 - 1
Denver Broncos 50 - 1
Detroit Lions 80 - 1
Green Bay Packers 25 - 1
Houston Texans 60 - 1
Indianapolis Colts 7 - 1
Jacksonville Jaguars 12 - 1
Kansas City Chiefs 100 - 1
Miami Dolphins 100 - 1
Minnesota Vikings 18 - 1
New England Patriots 7 - 2
New Orleans Saints 25 - 1
New York Giants 15 - 1
New York Jets 35 - 1
Oakland Raiders 50 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles 20 - 1
Pittsburgh Steelers 15 - 1
Saint Louis Rams 75 - 1
San Diego Chargers 7 - 1
San Francisco 49ers 80 - 1
Seattle Seahawks 25 - 1
Tampa Bay Buccanneers 40 - 1
Tennessee Titans 40 - 1
Washington Redskins 50 - 1

There’s never enough Madden 09 previews, and with that said, I present you with yet another. As long as these things keep popping out, I’m going ot keep showing them.

I posted the original trailer, but this one seems to be the actual gameplay, which is so much more revealing than the closeups that come out at first. Enjoy.

Here’s a look at Madden 09, which features Brett Favre on the cover, which is probably bad for Brett. Before, Madden only ruined a person’s statistics. Now, it’s gonna mess up sonmeone’s fishing trip on a nice Saturday.

The day after the draft, and it’s time to see who the winners and losers are. I’m not one who believes you can pick winners and losers the day later — I think it takes two years, not three, like most of the experts say to see who really won — but with that said, I will say this: Tennessee, m’friends, you were losers. They drafted Chris Johnson in the first round, a halfback who’s fast, and that’s about it. In the fourth round, they drafted William Hayes, who wasn’t a player expected to be picked in the full seven rounds.

Aw, such is life; we’ll know more of who won and who lost when the season starts, but for now I cling to the hope that Matt Ryan’s a combination of Michael Vick (without the animal abuse, of course), Brett Favre (without the interceptions, of course), Tom Brady (without being a dick, of course), Dan Marino (without the anger, of course), and Peyton Manning (without being a, you know, a Manning, of course).

Shaun Alexander, who rushed for over 1,800 yards two years ago and was featured on the cover of Madden, has been cut by the Seattle Seahawks.

Alexander, who is signed through the 2010, is scheduled to make $4.475 million this season. The Seahawks have two possible ways of releasing him. They could simply terminate his contract. If they do that, they would have a cap loss of $125,000.

Seattle could also release him under a June 2 designation in which they would put save the $4.475 million salary on the 2008 cap and then be responsible for $4.6 million on their 2009 cap. With more than $12 million of cap room remaining, the Seahawks may just simply give him his outright release and take the cap hits this season.

Whoever Alexander signs with, it’s sure to generate some fantasy buzz. I picked him this last year, thinking he’d gain more than 600 yards on the season, but feel whatever team he signs with at a lesser contract may motivate him to actually, you know, break a tackle or out-run somebody.

It’s hard waiting for the football season, given that it’s baseball and that’s it for quite a while, but the NFL does do whatever the NFL can do to try and pass time. They have a combine, they have a draft and, as little as it may seem, they’ve got the releasing of the NFL schedules (not to mention fantasy drafts, which are always nice). The schedules were released today, and while I won’t go through each game, I will go through some games that are sure to be some fun to watch this year.

Sept. 4
Washington Redskins @ New York Giants
-Super Bowl Champs have a history of sliding off the year after. We’ll get a good idea in week one how New York will handle the pressure of being a Champ.

Sept. 7
Kansas City @ New England
-Wonder what the spread will be for week 1? Remeber: Last year, for the first eight weeks, the Pats covered every Sunday. Vegas finally adjusted and they wore down. Like I said last year, I’ll say it for this year: Pound that ATM until they fail you. Pound it.

Sept. 14
San Diego @ Denver
-Remember Philip Rivers, Jay?

Sept. 21
Jacksonville @ Indianapolis
-The Colts will win, they always do against the Jags, but these matchups are always close.

Sept. 28
Cleveland @ Cincinnati
-Let’s see if one of these defenses can hold the other to under 40 points.

Sept. 29
Baltimore @ Pittsburgh
-It’s a fun rivalry, and based on the other MNF games leading up, it’ll be the best of the first five.

Oct. 5
Pittsburgh @ Jacksonville
-Last year, Pittsburgh was thought to be one of the best in the AFC, and then Jacksonville steamrolled them at home, then did it again in the playoffs. The Steelers should have a sour taste in their mouths, and will hopefully have some kind of plan to stop that Jaguars running game.

Oct. 12
New England @ San Diego
-Let’s hope a Super Bowl berth isn’t on the line and LT doesn’t have a stubbed toe. Let’s also hope Tom Brady throws to Wes Welker more than he does Antonio Cromartie, who terrorized him in the AFC Championship.

Oct. 19
Tennessee @ Kansas City
-Around this time, you’ll hear fans saying V-Young should be benched. Mark my words.

Oct. 26
Cleveland @ Jacksonville
-A strong defense and strong running game vs. no defense but one ridiculous passing game. Makes for a fun matchup.

Nov. 2
New England @ Indianapolis
-May want to mark this one on the calendar. ESPN is licking their chops for this Sunday Night game.

Nov. 8
New Orleans @ Atlanta
-Just kidding.

Nov. 16
Philadelphia @ Cincinnati
-Two good offenses, though one has to wonder just how good the Bengals offense will be without Ocho-Cinco. Guy’s a douche, I get that, but he’s a douche that’s really good at catching and then running.

Nov. 23
Indianapolis @ San Diego
-Peyton plays his worst games against the Chargers. Every time I say it’s a fluke. I’m starting to just think they know what they’re doing against the guy. He won’t have six interceptions in this one, but I don’t see him winning.

Nov. 30
Indianapolis @ Cleveland
-Two good offenses. Who doesn’t want to watch that?

Dec. 8
Carolina @ Tampa Bay
-It’s one of the few MNF games that I think will have playoff implications. I said it last year, and I was wrong, but I think the Panthers do win the NFC South, and NFC overall, this year.

Dec. 15
Cleveland @ Philadelphia
-If you haven’t noticed, I’m looking forward to seeing Cleveland this year. They’re young, they’re fast, and they don’t play defense. It’s everything I love in watching a game in which I bet the over.

Dec. 22
Green Bay @ Chicago
-Eh, it’s a rivalry. But I don’t see either team being over .500 at this point.

Dec. 28
Cleveland @ Pittsburgh
-Let’s hope the Browns are good, or else half the games I’ve said to watch will be no fun to watch.

Remember Jon Kitna’s prediction last year? The one where he said the Detroit Lions would win 10 games? The one that looked really, really good eight games into the season? The one that looked really, really bad 12 games into the season, and then unattainable 13 games into the season?

Well, he’s at it again, saying the Lions will win 10 games. And why would the Lions be better off this year than they were last year? Tatum Bell, of course.

“Last year was not a prediction, it was a statement of fact that if we didn’t win 10 games, we would be disappointed, and I would say that would still hold true this year,” he said. “We will be disappointed, but we’re going to be a better football team.”

Kitna said he believes adding Tatum Bell as the featured running back could be one of the moves to improve the Lions, who cut the injured Kevin Jones on Thursday. Jones was recovering from a torn anterior cruciate ligament after coming back from a serious foot injury last year.

If you’re going to mention improvements, start with the fact that Roy Williams will be healthy again. Or Mike Martz will be gone. But to say you’re going to win four more games than you did last year because of Tatum Bell. . . well, I don’t see the Seahawks making any guarantees because of TJ Duckett.

It was a busy day 1 of Free Agency, and there’s much more craziness that’s expected. Here’s a rundown of some of the things that took place.

• Kawika Mitchell, fresh off a Super Bowl win that has him looking better than ever, cashed in like most Super Bowl free agents do. He signed a 5 year, $17.5 million deal with the Bills, which should help a defense that struggled statistically, but rarely gave up points.
• The Jets came to terms with Kris Jenkins, the oft-injured DT formerly with the Panthers. When healthy, Jenkins is as good a defensive player there is in the game; something that can be a big “if.” Jenkins will more than likely play nose guard in the JEts 3-4 set.
• Josh Brown is headed to the Rams, and it appears to be a record deal as kickers go.
• Andre Davis signed a multi-year deal with the Texans. With Andre Johnson out most of the year, Davis had 33 cathces for 533 yards, and was considered their No. 1 receiver in Johnson’s absence.
• The biggest news of the day was Asante Samuel signing with the Eagles. The Eagles already have Lito Sheppard listed as their second string corner, and it is thought they’ll seek a trade for the vet with plenty of experience and plenty of speed.
• Allen Faneca signed with the Jets. Mangini’s first pick as head coach was on an OT, and now he’s going out and spending on a guard. Fortifying that line is clearly his first concern.
• Randy Moss still has no deal. Every Patriots hater out there is hoping he somehow lands on another team — preferably their team.

It’s playoffs time, people. I’m throwing my betting record out the drain and starting fresh. After finishing 124-100, this is a new season. Since I’m not counting my good record — 24 games over .500 is pretty solid when you’re betting the spread — I’m also not counting my terrible 1-2-1 record last week ATS. Anyway, here’s this week’s games and this week’s spreads.

Seahawks (+7.5) @ Packers: I haven’t really bought into the Packers this entire season. They played in a weak conference, a weaker division, and the whole “Brett Favre is back and better than ever!” talk has aggitated me for 18 weeks now. The Packers don’t run, and Seattle doesn’t give up much on the pass. I know this game is going to be in cold weather, and I know that’s supposed to be beneficial to Favre. Want to know the last time the Packers played at home in the playoffs? They lost to that guy that’s now in prison. Seven and a half? Uh-uh. Seahawks cover, upset the Pack.

Jaguars (+13) @ Patriots: There’s a lot of people that see this as the game the Patriots finally lose. They were on an off week, they’ll be off rhythm, they’ve had a rough end to the season, etc., etc. The Jags finished hot. They had five losses on the season, four if you don’t count the finale where they didn’t start anyone, two if you don’t count their games against the Colts, and one if you don’t count games that didn’t feature David Garrard. It’s a nice stat. I’m not a Pats fan. But they’ve pulled out a win some how, some way, pretty much every week. There’d be no one happier to see Jacksonville win. But they won’t. They’ll cover, but they’ll lose by three.

Chargers @ Colts (-8.5): Do you know what it means when you beat a team who had six interceptions, 28 active players on their roster, missed two chip shot field goals by maybe the best kicker of all time, and still lost a game by only two points? It means that team moved the ball all over you, but just couldn’t capitalize. Barring rain, 10 injuries, and Adam Vinitieri missing two field goals I could make, this game is done. Lock this one up: Colts cover.

Giants @ Cowboys (-7.5): I rode the Giants both times they played the Cowboys. The first time I liked the matchup. The second time New York was at home. They didn’t win in either, and they didn’t cover in either. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, you deserve my damn money. TO played with a broken leg, people. ‘Boys cover.