The Wait is Finally Over!!!!!!!!

After months and months of useless summer sports filler such as the LeBronathon, Tiger's feeble attempts to get back on top (no pun intended), regular season baseball, NASCAR, and tennis, football season is finally here again.

Although college football was a good appetizer for fans, nothing beats the entree of regular season NFL football.  There are many storylines going into this season to keep our eyes peeled every Sunday and Monday night, here are a few:

-Favre's "last" year
-The Cowboys quest to be the home team in the Super Bowl
-The New York Jets
-Boldin is a Raven, so is Housh
-Saints trying to repeat
-Big Ben's Suspension
-Peyton Manning's Revenge (By far the most important aspect of the season)

While we can make division and playoff predictions till we are blue in the face, I feel that we should get straight to the point and talk about what will define this season.  After 4 MVP awards, a Super Bowl title, and numerous passing records, 2010 will be the year that defines Peyton Manning's legacy. 

Tracy Porter's pick 6 in last year's Super Bowl did more than give the Saints their first championship. It also supplanted Manning as the league's top quarterback and has henceforth made everyone second guess whether or not Peyton Manning is really the greatest ever.

Leading up to last year's championship, all the talk was focused on Manning and how this win would cement him as the greatest ever, Mr. Untouchable, but on the way to receiving his second Lombardi trophy the Saints showed up and a lot of fans jumped off the Manning bandwagon (only 11 fans showed up to greet the Colts at the airport after the Superbowl).

Throughout his entire career, we have seen Peyton Manning constantly overcome adversity.  For example, when he came into the league he was tearing up the record books, killing the regular season, but he continually struggled against the Patriots.  It wasn't until he beat the Patriots in the playoffs en route to his first title, Manning was validated as a great quarterback.

But since his first title, there hasn't been any championship success.  If he had beaten the Saints, Peyton Manning would easily be considered the greatest quarterback ever.  All he would have to maintain his legacy is pad stats, avoid any potential scandal and retire gracefully (something which has hurt Favre's career). 

2010 is all about how Manning will respond to his critics.

He hasn't faced this sort of criticism since before he won his first Super Bowl and this year is his chance to show the media, fans, and rest of the league why he should be number one.

Until Manning goes Denzel in Man on Fire on the rest of the league, the main thing is footbal is finally back and it's the most wonderful time of the year.