The worst thing about the NFL is that the so-called experts pick the same teams over and over.
Guess, it's just easy.
For almost a decade, quarterback Tom Brady and the New England Patriots were going to win the Super Bowl.
The best thing about the NFL is that the so-called, pick-the-obvious experts are usually wrong.
Enter the 2013 NFL season, which starts Thursday night.
The predictions of who will be the next Super Bowl champs are mostly the usual suspects. Brady will win his fourth ring, they say. Others have Peyton Manning finally getting Denver another title.
Then there are the new kids on the block. Apparently, Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers won the Super Bowl last year because most fans talk about them as if they are going to repeat.
Hello, the 49ers lost to the Baltimore Ravens.
The Seattle Seahawks and their quarterback Russell Wilson get way too much respect, as well, for 2013.
Stop all the noise.
As usual Super Bowl, which will be held in Jersey off Exit 16 W of the turnpike, will have two talented teams most have forgotten about.
Aaron Rodgers will lead the Green Bay Packers over the Houston Texans (in the cold and possible snow) in early February.
Book it.
Somehow, many predicting the Super Bowl have decided to forget that the best player and best offensive weapon is still A-Rodg'.
In fact, in ESPN.com's listing of the Top 10 Offensive Players, Rodgers is No. 1. His numbers the last four seasons have been off the charts.
Last season, Rodgers had a QB rating of 108. He threw 39 TDs and just eight INTs. In the last two seasons, Rodgers has thrown 70 more touchdowns (84) than interceptions (14). Even for Madden, that’s absolutely sick.
There's no way you can ever count out a team that Rodgers is leading. In 2011, Rodgers led a beat up and injury-riddled Packers team to a Super Bowl victory, stunning the Pittsburgh Steelers. A-Rodg was, of course, the MVP.
The notion that Brady (36) and Manning (37) are going to lead their teams to Super Bowl and not Rodgers (29), in his prime, is off-base, wishful thinking.
Both have seen their best days. Rodgers could easily win the NFL MVP again. He has everything you want in a QB, including a strong and accurate arm, agility, toughness and leadership.
You saw that leadership last year. Some forget that the Packers got off to an ugly 1-2 start a year ago and still finished 11-5. Easily, they could have been 13-3. They were robbed of a game on Monday night in Seattle when replacement refs blew a game-winning interception and instead called it a game-winning TD. The league settled the next day with regular refs, who had been locked out. A missed field goal cost them another game.
Are the Packers perfect this season? No. They have a rookie running back in Eddie Lacy out of Alabama. But they are also getting back a number of starters who were hurt a year ago. The defense will be better because of it.
The NFL, though, is a QB-centric league and the Packers have the best one.
Hence, the storylines some want — Manning trying to become first QB to lead two different teams to a championship or Brady winning his fourth Super Bowl ring — aren't going to happen.
Same goes for Kaepernick and Wilson. They will have to wait a little longer.
When the February snow settles in Jersey, Rodgers will be holding the Lombardi Trophy over his head for the second time.
