The NFL schedule for the 2010 season will be released on Tuesday night, an anticipated event for starving football nuts during offseason. Flickr photo.

The NFL schedule for the 2010 season will be released tonight at 7 p.m. If you’re a football-starved fan, the release of the NFL schedule is like Christmas, or your birthday, or pay day cash during a bleak, boring offseason. If you don’t care about football, you’re probably scratching your head in wonder over how such a tremendous buzz can be generated over the NFL schedule. You may think the same thing about the NFL draft, which is being hyped so much that the proceedings will be televised live in prime time from the Radio City Music Hall in New York City April 22-24.

NFL schedule: any news is good news

When it comes to the NFL schedule some of the details can be interesting to hardcore fans when there’s nothing on TV. The biggest news about the NFL schedule for 2010 is that the final week of the season exclusively features divisional games. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell insisted upon this change to try to boost TV ratings, which suffered during late season mismatches pitting playoff-bound teams against teams playing for the first pick in the upcoming NFL Draft — an honor awarded to the club with the worst record in the league. Last season the Indianapolis Colts, at 14-0, sat quarterback Peyton Manning and tanked to preserve his health for a Super Bowl pay day.

NFL schedule 2010:  What to watch for

The NFL schedule has plenty of other things for football nuts to watch for. Michael Lombardi at nationalfootballpost.com said that when it comes to opponents, finishing strong is more important than getting off to a good start. Lombardi recommends examining your favorite team’s last eight games to see how many tough road trips they will face.

More NFL schedule tidbits

The NFL schedule for 2010 includes more potential stories. One schedule that will stand out is the Pittsburgh Steelers’. It’s a good bet that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who has made headlines for sexual assault charges on two different occasions, will be suspended for at least four games. The Steelers’ early season opponents will be licking their chops. And Pete Carroll, who is returning to the NFL to coach the Seattle Seahawks after building a dynasty at the University of Southern California, will be facing two of his former stars: Arizona Cardinals quarterback Matt Leinart and New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush.

NFL schedule: offseason, off the field

Meanwhile, until the NFL schedule for 2010 kicks in, ESPN has graciously provided football nuts with some key dates to get excited about during the long, boring offseason:

May 24-26: NFL spring meeting, Dallas

June 27-30: NFL Rookie Symposium, Carlsbad, Calif.

Mid-July: Training camps open

Aug. 8: Pro Football Hall of Fame Game: Cowboys vs. Bengals, 8 p.m. ET, Canton, Ohio

Aug. 12-16: First preseason weekend

Aug. 31: Roster cutdown to maximum of 75 players.

Sept. 4: Roster cutdown to maximum of 53 players

Sept. 9-13: Kickoff 2010 Weekend

Feb. 6, 2011: Super Bowl XLV, Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, Texas

NFL experts are wondering if Ted Ginn, traded by Miami to San Francisco, will be cheered or booed by 49er fans next season. Wikimedia Commons photo.

Ted Ginn, traded to the San Francisco 49ers on Friday, was a former first round pick of the Miami Dolphins  in the 2007 NFL draft. To trade for Ginn, San Franciso gave up its fifth-round pick in this weekend’s NFL draft. When the Dolphins traded second-round draft picks in 2010 and 2011 to Denver for wide receiver Brandon Marshall, it was common knowledge that the writing was on the wall for the underachieving Ginn in Miami, who may be flying to San Francisco Friday to take a physical. His primary role in San Francisco is expected to be as a return specialist.

Ted Ginn to 49ers for a paltry sum

Ted Ginn  is under contract for three more years at what may be considered paltry sums in the NFL – $1.03 million, $1.39 million and $1.8 million. Even so, he won’t be needing a personal loan. Marshall’s pay day with the Dolphins is a four-year, $47.5 million  contract extension that includes $24 million in guaranteed money. The deal includes close to $29 million in the first three years of the contract and makes Marshall the highest-paid receiver in NFL history.

Ted Ginn traded:  underachiever at Miami

Ted Ginn (AKA Ted Ginn Jr.) was being shopped around by the Dolphins even before the team acquired Marshall, an elite reciever whose immense talent and production on the field has trumped a long history of disorderly conduct and arrests. Ginn, the No. 9 pick overall in 2007, has yet to reach the potential football experts believed he had as a top-flight wide receiver. After three years in the league he has averaged just 43 catches per season and has just five career TD receptions. In contrast, Marshall, a fourth-round pick, has 307 receptions, 3,710 yards, 23 TDs and 10 110-yard games in the same timeframe.

Ted Ginn to 49ers: slowed by foot injury

Ted Ginn called  himself the “Fastest Man in the Big 10″ when he played at Ohio State. Back then, he may have been right. He had been unofficially timed at 10.02 seconds in the 100 meter dash and 4.20 seconds in the 40 yard dash. But Ginn never seemed to be the same after he injured his foot in the 2007 BCS title game won by the Florida Gators 41-14. The injury forced him to forgo field drills at the 2007 NFL scouting combine. Later in a private workout for NFL scouts, he could only muster between 4.37 and 4.45. On the field in the NFL, Ginn was supposed to make up for his small size (5-11, 180) with gamebreaking speed and moves. But his yards-after-catch numbers, which started at 5.1 his rookie year, fell to 3.6 n -08 and a paltry 1.3 in ’09.

Ted Ginn joins Quinn in San Francisco

When Ted Ginn was drafted by Miami, the selection was greeted with boos by Dolphins fans attending the draft. Many Dolphins players were hoping the team would select Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn. Quinn was drafted by the Cleveland Browns, wasn’t instant money, and in an ironic twist, was recently traded to San Franciso, where he could be throwing passes to Ginn come this fall–if either player manages to get on the field.

Sheila Jackson Lee image from Wikimedia. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SheilaJacksonlee.jpg

When I wrote earlier about the possibility of Rush Limbaugh buying the St. Louis Rams, I kind of thought that whole process had been snuffed out already. Apparently I was mistaken, as yesterday Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) in a floor speech said the NFL should not accept a bid from Rush Limbaugh to buy the team.

Several people already have voiced their opinions that they were opposed to Rush Limbaugh owning an NFL team, including NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Last week, the commissioner suggested he would not accept a bid from Limbaugh when he said “we’re all held to a high standard here, and I think divisive comments are not what the NFL is all about.”

Sheila Jackson Lee is not alone

It looks like no amount of instant money will convince certain people within the NFL to vote in favor of Rush Limbaugh’s bid, which hasn’t officially been made yet. At this point, Limbaugh has simply expressed interest. Colts owner Jim Irsay has already made it clear to the public that he would not vote in favor of Rush Limbaugh owning the Rams. Several players on the team have also said they wouldn’t want to be on the team anymore if he owned it.

In fact, The Hill reports that the entire “NFL Players Association … has expressed major concerns about Limbaugh’s bid.” Outside the NFL, The Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have both urged the NFL to vote down any bid Limbaugh makes. However, it appears Limbaugh has not given up on the idea that he could buy the team, as he talked about Sheila Jackson Lee’s comments on his radio show today.

One vote for Rush Limbaugh

Sheila Jackson Lee is not the only politician who has voiced an opinion about the idea of Rush Limbaugh purchasing an NFL team. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), who joins Sheila Jackson Lee as a memeber of the Congressional Black Caucus, said he would have no problem with Limbaugh owning the Rams. He even said he thinks Limbaugh could help the team.

Limbaugh used to work as a commentator for ESPN on its NFL pregame show. However, he resigned after saying — on the air — that he thought Donovan McNabb was getting more attention than he deserved. He attributed this attention to the fact that Americans “wanted to see a black quarterback do well.”

Grassroots movement opposes Limbaugh’s racist quotes

An online campaign to get people to sign a petition urging the NFL to reject any offer from Rush Limbaugh. The campaign, housed at RushIsARacist.com, has compiled video of Rush Limbaugh racist quotes.

Considering that the NFL commissioner has already implied that he would reject Limbaugh’s offer, all of this campaigning — by grassroots movements, famous reverends and Sheila Jackson Lee — might be unnecessary. But nowadays it seems people will jump on any excuse to get riled up about racism.