Top Ten Signs That Your Team Will Not Be Winning the Superbowl!

Saying that we love the NFL is an understatement. As football fans, we are obsessed with the road to the Superbowl. We buy jerseys, attend games, paint our faces with team colors and watch hours of television talking heads breaking down the matchups. All this in hopes of our beloved team having a shot at claiming the Lombardi Trophy in the next Superbowl.

Each August we begin watching the Pre-Season games with high expectations. We talk about all the block buster off season changes, the great draft picks and returning veterans who will help deliver us to the promised land of NFL glory. We harbor dreams of January heroics and February triumphs. Sadly, reality will fall well short of hopes for most of us.

What follows is my list of signs that it is time to trade in your Superbowl dreams for "there is always next year" boasting.

Yes, if you spend each week anticipating the announcement of who your starting quarterback will be on Sunday, there is a good chance your team will not be partaking in this year's Superbowl.

The position of quarterback is one of the most important positions on the team. If the coach does not bother to remember what his name is, your team likely needs a little more work to become a serious contender.

We have all watched those pre-game shows on television and how they always try to say somthing positive about each team. If the commentators have a hard time keeping a straight face while discussing your team's strengths, your season is unlikely to end on a high note.

Sure, a coach must be a strong leader and he is not there to make friends. Even so, football is a tough sport that requires a warrior mentality. If you see players crying on the sidelines because the coach yelled at them, there is a good chance they will be watching the Superbowl from the comforts of home.

Every team looks forward to the bye week, it gives injured players time to heal and the guys usually have a few extra days off to spend with their families. However, if Vegas lists your team as an underdog on their bye week, there is still much work to be done.

One must wonder about the expectations of a team that seems a little too excited about winning the coin toss. Do they know that the game has yet to begin?

Scrimmage games with the practice squad are a great way to get the team ready for Sunday, but it is not a good thing when the practice squad is always winning.

Certainly the Madden NFL franchise is one of the best sports video games available, but you do not want your favorite team using that playbook. If the coaching staff is anxious for the new Madden to hit stores so they can see what plays they will be running, it will not be a Superbowl year.

The NFL has seen some great defenses over the years, defenses that were refered to with tough sounding names, such as Pittsburgh's "Steel Curtain" defense in the seventies. Those defenses brought Superbowl glory to their teams. If your team defense is refered to as the "Open Door" defense, or some similar name, you are unlikely to be watching your team on Superbowl Sunday.

Ok, I could not resist this one. I could have picked on numerous teams here, but it was just too easy to pick on the "other" team that calls "Giants" stadium home.

Do not despair if your team is having a rough year. There are more seasons to come and no matter how good a team is, there will only be one Superbowl Champion. I hope you enjoyed reading this, and remember that it is only a game.