The 2006 football season has been in full action for 2 weeks. To me this is the most exciting time of the year. I don't know if there are other football fans out there. Here are the reasons that I think this season will be very interesting.

My favorite teams:

1. San Diego Chargers. My hometown team has been playing extraordinarily well so far. What surprises me is their defense, totally dominating. Their opponents did not score at all in the first two games until late in the 3rd quarter of the second game, when most of the starting defensive players are sidelined. As I always believe: good offense wins games, but good defense wins the championship. The Chargers will be serious contenders if their defense continue to hold up like this. I like Showne Merriman. He makes the opponents' quarterbacks panic. Two weeks ago the Raiders totally fell for it. Their 7-step long passes to Randy Moss are perfect meals for the hungry Merriman (3 sacks). Todd Collins tried to get rid of the ball quickly this week but ended up with 3 interceptions. The Chargers' offense has always been a scoring machine. It is inspiring to watch LT-he reminded me of Barry Sanders, maybe even better. He is at the prime of his carreer and deserves a Superbowl ring. Three questions remain to be answered by this team: 1) How do they measure against stronger opponents? (The upcoming game against the Ravens will be a huge one). 2) Can Phil Rivers prove himself for the entire season? 3) Can the defense continue to hold up?

2. The Detroit Lions. Win or lose, I will always be a Lions' fan because I turned into a real football fan after I watched one of their games in the Silverdome in 1991 when they beat the Buccaneers. You have to be in the stadium at least once to trully understand what professional football is all about. It's been 15 years. The Buccaneers have won how many championships, but the Lions are still the same sleeping Lions. I felt sorry for great players such as Barry Sanders, Chris Spielman, Herman Moore, and even Joey Harrington. It has to be something wrong with the organization, not the coaches, not the players. My best advice to Mr. Ford is forget about those stupid ads on TV, perhaps a good place to start with advertisement is to show people that you can build a winning organization, then convince them to buy your trucks. Otherwise, sell the football team and leave them alone.

3. The Indiannapolis Colts. Their offense is clicking on all cylinders with the red hot Payton Manning. They should have won last year's title but they blew it and is the most favored team to win this year. Again, their key issue is the defense that remains to be proven during the season. If they still cannot win the title this year, then the expectations will start to get old, making it even harder. It is very likely, if both teams continue to play as they are now, the Colts will meet the Chargers for the division final-what a fun game to watch!

4. The New York Giants. They impressed me with the 17-point comeback win late in the 4th quater AWAY from home. It is a completely different season if you are 0:2 than 1:1 with a young quaterback and a team with a lot of second guessing. Eli can throw, lead and is a smart boy. Sooner or later he will formally challenge his brother for the title. The thing I don't understand is why he did not want to come to San Diego and demanded to be traded to NY two years ago? Maybe something happened then that we didn't know. But look at the picture, if Eli comes to the Chargers we then have a Superbowl team made this year. Whatever happened he certainly hurt the feelings of all the Charger fans. It will take him very long, if not forever to win a game at the Qualcomm Stadium.

Some comments about the college games since I am still a semi- college football fan. But what happened with the officials in the OU-Oregon game? I think they should wear reading glasses when watching the replays. On the otherhand, USC is still hot without Reggie even though Musberger tells everybody about their plays on TV. What about those Wolverines. They finally beat the Golden Irish-there is no doubt about that game!

Well, so much for the highlights of week 2. Hopefully more to come.