It is finally here, the NFL begins in just a few minutes with the reigning Super Bowl Champion Baltimore Ravens @ the 2012 AFC West champion Denver Broncos. After miring in mediocrity for several years, the Broncos picked up future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning to turn their fortunes around into a 13-3 season and winning the AFC West. The would lose to the Ravens in the divisional round of the playoffs. This offseason they acquired former Patriots stand-out wide receiver, Wes Welker, who will provide Manning another reliable target who can be dangerous on any part of the field and should excel receiving passes from Manning's mastery of the audible and calling the quick play. The Ravens on the other hand will be returning after a championship season, which marked the end of future Hall of Famer career of Ray Lewis but also saw the departure of perenial Pro-Bowl Ed Reed, both a staple of the Ravens defense for the past decade or more. On offense they return with mostly the same crew, Joe Flacco at QB and one of the more underrated runningbacks in the league, Ray Rice. This should be interesting on how the Ravens follow up on their miraculous run.

Welcome to the 2013 NFL season.

HALFTIME EDIT: So Peyton Manning has looked sharp against the Ravens D and he is making enough plays to keep the score close. Flacco is doing enough to not mess up the game, but that interception sure didn't help things, they could have been up by more than a touchdown. Ravens have done a much better job at sustaining drives and field position though, which is their saving grace. Broncos aren't really getting their running game going, while Ravens been steady but not great. I think the second half Peyton really lets loose and puts up the points, and even without Von Miller I think the Broncos are doing a decent job getting pressure on Flacco as the game is wearing on so looking for more of that in the 2nd half.

This is not to start a stupid debate about what label should be used to refer to which sport, but there already exists a thread entitled "Football Thread" to discuss Association Football. Maybe one of these threads should have their title changed, just so it's clear which thread is which.

I call it what I know, there is no other name for it.

Here's the easy difference: that thread is a general topic that doesn't cover any particular season, this thread is. Now you know which thread is which.

This thread should be called the NFL thread, or if you insist on including discussion of American College Football, (NCAA) then it should be called "American Football Thread".

As for Peyton, I dig it because he's my QB in one league, and I don't like the Ravens, especially Flacco.

We already have a NFL thread

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1441201-nfl-thread-18-ravens-are-2012-superbowl-champions/

Let's use the NFL thread has been running for a long time.