The National Football League’s 100th season kicks off tonight in Chicago when the Bears host the Packers. Really, it’s the 60th season of modern professional football and 50th of the merged NFL. The Patriots, last year’s Super Bowl champions, would normally have the honor of playing the first regular season game at home on a Thursday night, but since this is the NFL’s 100th season, the league decided its oldest rivalry should trump Brady and Belichick. Nobody outside New England is complaining, and I’m sure some Patriot fans are not upset, since they can now go to the season opener Sunday night in Foxborough vs. the Steelers who may not have been able to on a Thursday.

I’m in Kansas City, where Patrick Mahomes II, not the sun, is the center of the universe. Mahomes opens defense of his Most Valuable Player award Sunday in Jacksonville. The Chiefs don’t play at home until Sept. 22 when the Ravens and Lamar Jackson come to town.

If Kansas City isn’t 2-0 (the Chiefs play the Raiders in Oakland next week) when Baltiomre invades, there will be plenty of unhappy campers in Chiefs Kingdom. The Kansas City Star conducted a poll this week asking fans what is their realistic expecations for the Chiefs in 2019. Over a third said “winning the Super Bowl” and another 40 percent said “reaching the Super Bowl”. If that’s the case, there will hundreds of thousands of disappointed Chiefs fans come January 19 at 1830 (if not earlier), because I can’t see Kansas City defeating New England, no matter if the game’s at Arrowhead or in Foxborough.

In the NFC, the Saints had better get to the Super Bowl. They were screwed royally by incompetent officials in last year’s NFC championship game, and two years ago, they were undone by horrendous tackling which allowed the Vikings to score the game-winning touchdown on the final play. Drew Brees is 41 and can’t keep this up forever. The Saints should have no trouble winning the NFC South (should, because the Falcons will be tough if their defense improves), and if they have home field advantage, New Orleans will have a distinct advantage with its fervent fan base in the Superdome.

Saints and Patriots in Miami for Super Bowl LIV. Sounds good to me. And the Saints celebrate the 10th anniversary of their first Super Bowl championship with their second. Drew Brees rides off into the sunset on top.

Two nights before the Saints host the Texans, the states of Louisiana and Texas will have their eyes fixed on Austin.

LSU and Texas will square off for the first time in the regular season since 1954, and only the third time since then. It’s criminal the flagship universities of neighboring states, both with elite football programs, have not played a regular season game in 65 years. The only meetings since ’54 were in Cotton Bowls 40 years apart. LSU won 13-0 after the 1962 season to cap Charles McClendon’s first season at the helm, and the Longhorns prevailed 35-20 after the 2002 campaign. In each case, the loser went on to win the national championship the next season, the Longhorns under Darrell Royal and the Bayou Bengals under Nick Saban.

It would be hard for LSU and Texas to play every year, but why not four times every decade? One game in Baton Rouge, one in Austin, one in Arlington at Jerry World, and one in New Orleans. Saban wants the other Power Five schools to schedule more games against other Power Five schools, and he is dead on. This bull about helping out lower level schools by giving them big paydays doesn’t float with me.

For instance, let the small schools in Louisiana–McNeese, Southeastern, Northwestern, Nicholls, Southern, Grambling–play Louisiana Tech, UL Monroe, UL Lafayette and Tulane (although Tulane should consider itself on a higher level and try to schedule more Power Five games). LSU should not be subsidizing these schools’ athletic budgets with a football game. Doing it in men’s basketball and baseball is just fine.

Tthe SEC and ACC should be required to play nine conference games by the College Football Playoff committee. It is patently unfair the SEC and ACC play only eight conference games, then use the fourth non-conference date to schedule directional Louisiana, while the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 each play nine conference games. The Big 12 and Big Ten also up the ante by requiring teams to play a Power Five non-conference game.

Sadly, Saban is outvoted 13-1 at every SEC meeting about nine conference games. and I don’t see it changing until Saban is fishing with Ms. Terry on Lake Burton full time.

LSU should play Tulane every year, but the Bayou Bengals should demand the majority of the games be in Baton Rouge. The Green Wave will make twice as much on a game in Baton Rouge as they could ever hope to make on a game at their 30,000-seat on campus stadium, so why not? Without any travel expenses, save for the diesel fuel for the buses and possibly a hotel if the game is in the morning, the Wave will clear a bundle which would go a long, long way to helping their other programs. Yes, there should be games in New Orleans, but they have to be at the Superdome, and LSU must be guaranteed at least 40 percent of the ticket allotment.

If I were in charge of LSU football scheduling, it would be Tulane, a Power Five foe (ACC and Big 12 would get first priority, but Big Ten and Pac-12 would be worked in), and a nearby foe, such as one of the other three FBS teams in Louisiana (Tech, Mornoe, Lafayette) or antoher southern team (Southern Miss, Memphis, UAB, SMU). If the SEC. is obstinate about not adding the ninth conference game, then LSU should sechedule a second Power Five.

High school football starts in my native state and my home state this weekend.

I’m still pissed Kansas refuses to find a single site for its championship games. To me, it reduces title games to just another game; the only difference is it’s played on Saturday afternoon at 1300 instead of Friday night at 1900. If I were a high school player in Kansas, I would be livid that my title game could be on another high school field or a junior college field instead of the stadiums at KU and K-State, or at Children’s Mercy Park, where Sporting Kansas City plays.

Louisiana has played at the Superdome since 1981 (save 2005, when the damage from Hurricane Katrina forced a relocation to Shreveport), but I wish they were at Tiger Stadium. That won’t happen, thanks to a lot of people who don’t want to move them out of New Orleans, and LSU, scared to death its field will get torn to bits. If Alabama, Auburn, Ole Miss and Mississippi State can host high school championship games on its fields, why can’t LSU?

Ah, the mysteries of life.