Let's talk about football.

With the close of the NFL season comes a good party, tons of calories, and another week closer to baseball season.

I will be honest in saying that I paid much more attention to football this year than last. Although the Jets struggled to barely make it through their regular season games, I found some fun in post-season football without them. With New York out of the running, I paired up with some of my Seattle mates to watch the Seahawks. The games were neck and neck. Full on nail biters. Right until the heartbreaking end.

From there, I had to turn south. To San Francisco. The 49ers fought their way through some tough teams. First, they tore through Green Bay. For me, it was like watching my first live football game all over again (see post in years past regarding my first game, many, many moons ago). Only this time, they took the win. I still think there was a lot of luck involved.

Next, they took on the Atlanta Falcons. Watching the first quarter of this game was pretty abysmal. From the way they were playing, there was no way they were going to make it past these birds. Somehow, they managed to recover, and the game remained tight until the last couple of minutes. I wasn't even sure they had the win at the 2:00 warning.

But they did.

And then I got to thinking. How much of this is rigged? How badly did the NFL want to see the Harbaugh brothers battle it out against each other? What a great marketing tool! What a great story for the books! I'm sure their parents are so proud! Which one will root for which team?

I'll be honest, I think the Ravens fought the good fight to earn their place in Super Bowl XLVII. But I really thought the game was going to be bird on bird. A fight for the south and the east. As much as the 49ers played hard, they made critical mistakes that were magically erased by many strokes of good luck in the divisional and conference games.

That being said, I'm turning my back on my third-string team and rooting for the Baltimore Ravens next Sunday. I look good in purple anyway.

So, let's play ball...and figure out the menu....may the best team win.

Some not so shocking news.

I grew up around sports. A lot of baseball, but sports.

When I was in middle school, I realized how much I liked sports. This had nothing to do with the fact that I was a cheerleader. I'm still not sure how that part of my life came to be. Actually, I didn't just like sports. I loved sports. I loved sports so much that I stole the sports page from my parents' papers and cut out all of the numbers and stats I was interested in to tape them into these little notebooks. I think my mom still has these little notebooks somewhere in her garage. I should resurrect them sometime.

Anyway, this love for sports developed on Sundays, soon adding Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays. Soon enough, there was something I wanted to watch every day. The notebooks were filling up, and I had officially tapped myself to be a sports aficionado. I think I was 12.

One of my best friend's dad knew about my passion for sports. At that time it was mainly football. Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers to be exact. He came home one evening with tickets to the 98-99 NFC wildcard game. The Green Bay Packers against the San Francisco 49ers. Suited up in our puffy NFL team jackets and jerseys, we headed to the San Francisco bay on a cold January day to watch a live football game.

I jammed my finger playing catch during our tailgate party, but I was so excited that I didn't tell anyone until after the game. I didn't want anyone to drag me off to a doctor or anything. I wore a brace on my finger for two weeks after that day.

The Packers lost that game, and I came home with a swollen and bruised middle finger, but that was one of the best days of my life.

I watched Favre evolve over the years, retire, change teams, retire, change teams and now...probably retire again. For real this time.

After a heartbreaking loss to the New Orleans Saints yesterday, Brett Favre says he is heading home for a few days to think it over, but a return to the NFL is unlikely. As unsurprising as those words are to me, they are a little sad this time because I think they are true.

But I wonder if he will still do commercials? I really like those Sears commercials he's been in lately. Seriously. Not even kidding.