It begins.

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It's December 31st.  Christmas presents have been long opened and New Year's resolutions have been made.  The NFL playoffs loom like a second holiday season ahead, cruelly beckoning with its many promises of excitement and drama.  Ohio State and LSU will battle it out in a week to see who the real #1 is in college football.  Life is good and it gets better.  Today kicks off the Bowl Week festivities for the Offense-Defense All-American Bowl which will be held January 4th at Orange Bowl Stadium in Miami and broadcast live nationally on Fox College Sports.

For the week leading up to the game itself you can come right here and read this blog to get the latest updates on the last-ever game to be played at the Orange Bowl.  From who on the rosters is the king of Madden '08 to who's running the best 40-time under coach Cris Carter's watchful eye, we'll try to bring you all the important, not-so-important, and downright irreverent information on some of the brightest stars of football's future.

If last year is any indication, there's going to be a lot to talk about just from a talent standpoint.  When one normally thinks of an All-Star game, you've almost got to slap yourself to stay awake.  There's no hitting to speak of in the Pro Bowl.  More of the same in the NHL's midseason classic.  Do MLB players really make a deal about their All-Star game?  Home-field advantage in the World Series is a mirage, especially considering a majority of the players on each roster won't catch anything but a tease of the series in October if that.  Defense in the NBA's game?  They don't even play defense during the regular season! 

With last year's O-D Bowl, if you would have told me while I was watching it that this was an All-Star game, I wouldn't have believed you.  If you told me I was watching a championship game, I would have been hard-pressed to tell you you were wrong.  The coaching schemes were unreal, immensely intricate and complex considering the short period of time they had to prepare.  As exciting as the plays were (backwards leaping touchdown catches anyone?), the hitting...my god, the hitting!...was absolutely breathtaking.  This looked like rookies reporting to their first NFL and not in a bad way!  These guys played their hearts out like they had something to prove.  To say that it was refreshing would be an understatement and I simply can't wait to see what these guys do for an encore.

Bring on the All-Americans!