Well, almost. The truth is, the National Football League doesn’t actually kick off its regular season until Thursday, September 9 when the New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings play in a rematch of the 2009 NFC Championship Game. However, today marks the start of NFL training camps with the Cleveland Browns starting things off and being the first team to report to camp. The rest of the NFL’s teams will follow suit over the course of the next week.

To help get you excited for the 2010 NFL season, we came up with the top sic reasons we’re excited to see the game of football return:

1) It marks the end of the LeBron James-chooses-the-Miami-Heat fiasco.

July has been a long month, hasn’t it? What started out as excitmenet (where is LeBron gonna sign?! TELL ME NOW!) has turned into the never-ending story. Prepare for that to disappear. All throughout NFL training camp, Sportscenter will be flooded with stories about—what else?—football. Who made the team? Who didn’t? Who’s gonna be good? Who isn’t? It’s a fresh start for football and August is the perfect month to celebrate it.

2) It also marks the start of the Is-Brett-Favre-coming-back-for-another-season? fiasco.

Is it weird that it’s gotten to the point where Brett Favre‘s will-he-stay-or-will-he-go? routine is kind of entertaining again? It’s been relatively annoying for the last few years, but it’s starting to feel like, without Favre’s decision, the NFL preseason just wouldn’t be the same. That said, it feels like everyone already knows he’s coming back this year—so wouldn’t it be crazy to see him shock the world and retire for real this time? Guess we’ll see.

3) It means the season debut of HBO’s phenomenal Hard Knocks show isn’t far away.

If you’re a sports fan, Hard Knocks is easily—easily!—your favorite show on TV. Not just reality show, not just reality sports show, not just sports-related show, but TV show period. Hard Knocks this year should be especially entertaining with HBO taking viewers behind-the-scenes with the New York Jets, one of the favorites the win the Super Bowl this season. With a team full of characters and a coach that’s funny and charismatic, the best show on TV gets better.

4) It means you only have seven more weeks until your Sundays are booked up again.

Don’t you ever sit and watch an NFL game on Sunday afternoon in the middle of November and think, What the hell do I do with myself on Sunday afternoons in the middle of March when there’s no football on? The answer: You sulk. You’ve only got seven more weeks to do that, though. So use your time wisely and get all those chores you’ve been putting off since the start of summer done.

5) It means Mondays won’t completely suck soon.

TGIF gets replaced by TGIMNF (as in “Thank God It’s Monday Night Football”) once the fall starts. Instead of waking up and slamming on your alarm clock every Monday morning, you can rest easy knowing that, in just 12 hours or so, you’ll be parked in front of the TV watching football. Life. Is. Good.

6) If the words “fantasy football” mean anything to you, it means you’re back in the hunt for a playoff berth in your league

I never played fantasy football until last year. Now? I’m addicted. I’ve been doing a scouting report on the top 10 players I’d want to draft since…well, since about Week 10 of last season when it was clear I wasn’t going to win my 2009 league. At any rate, August is the month when most fantasy drafts get done. If you have never played fantasy football before, what the hell are you waiting for? Take it from me: PLAY. It’s fun. And addictive. And just another reason to love the game of football.

*EXTRA POINT: It means Madden 2011 is coming out soon!

Just a few more weeks. I’ll be 100 percent honest—my Madden skills have been slipping (with the quickness) since Madden 02. But there’s just something about going to the store the day Madden drops that gets me excited about the NFL season.

Football season is officially upon us. Are you ready for some football?

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