Quick Hits: R U Ready 4 Some Pigskin?

Yes! August 8. I've been waiting for this day for six months!

Yeah, Miami and Chicago played on Monday Night Football in the Hall of Fame game, which I consider the more important of the two games this weekend (I could care less about any games played in Japan). So, yes, this was the start of the NFL preseason.

More importantly, it means there is ONE MONTH until the Patriots open the regular season on "Thursday Night Football" against the Los Angeles Raiders of Anaheim or whoever they are. That's right, a mere 31 days until we see what the Law-less Patriots can do against the Kerry Collins to Randy Moss connection.

You'll have to wait on predictions for that one for now, because Exciting Day No. 2 is later this week when New England travels to Cincinnati for a Friday night spectacular (7:30 p.m. on Channel 5). As Kent "Flounder" Dorfman said in "Animal House": "Boy, this is gonna be great!"

OK, it's meaningless (as long as there are no injuries), but I'm going to watch anyway. And you're going to come back and read what I write about it.

Neat how that works, huh?