The Desert Wasteland of the NFL

Chaco Canyon is an ancient and deeply spiritual place located in northwestern New Mexico.

It contains the most impressive collection of ancient ruins north of the Rio Grande and is the ancestral home of the Pueblo Indians.

It is said nothing grows there.

While that's a bit extreme, it is easy to see why folks say such a thing. It is a desert without a major source of water, so the only time it blooms is after a rain.

For those poor souls thirsting for news about their favorite team, one could say the same thing about the period of time between the NFL draft and the opening of training camps.

We have entered that twilight zone of time, where every crumb is eagerly pounced upon by the talking heads tasked to provide us with something, anything, even the most mundane thing...like Brett Favre is not going to unretire. Gads! What nonsense.

The dearth of information available is so bad we are reduced to the inane prattling or worse, ill-advised and under-informed speculation presented as "analysis."

Gimme a break!

The truth of Chaco Canyon is visible in the photo above. Some things actually do grow there, and often they are beautiful when they bloom.

The same is true of the NFL...even during these doldrum days of the off-season. Soon my friends...hopes will rise and hearts will swell with the opening of training camps and the nattering of coach-speak.

Wide-eyed rookies will arrive driving their `84 Sentra with a hatchback full of clothes, boom box, video games and CD's, having no idea how little time they will have over the next five weeks for Madden `09.

In the meantime, you fans will have to make do with the video games and the occaisional wire report of a trade or player release to soothe the festering sore in your soul we all know as the off-season.