Dave Dameshek

Before you know it, free agency will be here.

And before that, there could be some huge names on the move once they emerge from their darkness retreats or otherwise.

Draft season is already underway.

Does it ever really end?

Plus schedule release, minicamp and training camp will provide some intrigue till September finally arrives.

Yeah, I know I'm rationalizing, but what the hell else can I do?

I'd love to make like a bear and hibernate till kickoff, but I think at least I hope my kids would miss me.

Besides, this is the deal we've made with football, which works on the exact opposite schedule of those hibernating bears hiding from winter.

Warm weather's where it's at in a lot of ways, but as mentioned above, it lacks the most important thing, football.

Only when the temperature's dipped does our spiritual sunshine spiral back into our lives.

For now, though, we wait and contemplate and maybe find some reasons for optimism where our favorite team is concerned.

The NFL's a copycat league after all, so maybe we can extract some lessons from the last 20-ish weeks.

Even better, we can recklessly speculate about what might happen come autumn of 26.

No one's going to remember any of our predictions by then, unless those predictions come true, in which case, I'll demand boundless praise.

One thing for sure, especially after last weekend's divisional round lunacy, and if the Indiana Hoosiers can beat Ohio State and Alabama and Oregon times two and Miami with a Pittsburgh curmudgeon and a Cuban dork as the two leading men, your team, no matter who your team is, has a shot.

Well, except for the Browns and the Jets, but everyone else besides Purdue.

Let's start the show.

Yes, hi, and hello, my fellow football Americans.

It's your old pal Dave.

Wait a minute.