Top Story of the 2010 NFL season

Sure the games are over. The Super Bowl was just an exclamation mark on a rather exciting and unusual NFL season. The NFL has mastered the art of remaining relevant all year long. No matter if there are games being played, prospective rookies working out for potential coaches, or off the field issues that some major player finds himself in each off season, the NFL will remain in the news all year long.Now it is easy for us as sports fans to be caught in the moment and quickly remember the 2010 season with the scene of Aaron Rodgers holding the Lombardi trophy but is that truly the story of the 2010 season? Here are the top five stories of the 2010 season.

5. "Patriots trade Randy Moss and go 13-3."- After week four had come to an end, the New England Patriots WR Randy Moss had nine catches (season total) and one of the most disinterested performances in recent memory. The Patriots traded Moss to the Minnesota Vikings for a 3rd round pick and apparently knew something the rest of the world did not. While Moss would later be cut by the Vikings and rumor has it he was picked up by the Tennessee Titans(this can not be confirmed nor denied due to lack of evidence on the field), the Patriots would acquire Deion Branch and Tom Brady would go onto make NFL history for pass attempts without an interception (335). The Patriots offense became unstoppable for the remainder of the regular season. Tom Brady finished with 36 TDs and only 4 INTs and the first ever unanimous AP

NFL MVP.

4. "Pittsburgh Steelers overcome Big Ben's off field troubles."- It was no Tiger Woods story but news of Ben Roethlisburger's night at a Georgia college night club was pouring out of television screens worldwide. This

was the third off season that Big Ben found himself in some sort of controversy ( motorcycle crash while

not wearing a helmet, rape allegations in Vegas, and rape allegations in Georgia). The NFL commissioner stepped in and decided to suspend the Steelers QB for the first four games of the season. How did the Steelers respond? A record of 3-1 with a realistic chance of of finishing 4-0 had Joe Flacco not stolen one from them. Obviously, the Steelers continued to win regardless of Big Ben's off field distractions and finished the season one TD away from winning the Lombardi Trophy.

3. "Michael Vick Unleashed?"- Kevin Kolb, QB for Philadelphia Eagles, exits week one with a concussion and Mike Vick enters the game with the same electricity he possessed years prior as the starting QB of the Atlanta Falcons. The difference for Vick this season was that he threw extremely effective and relied more on his arm than his legs a

s in previous seasons. Vick finished the season with career highs through the air in TDs (21), passer rating (100.2) and career low in INTs (6). He rushed for 9 TDs as well. All this plus a division title led Vick to receive the NFL's Comeback Player of the Year Award.

2. "I'm retired.....NOT: The Brett Favre Story."- Sure this has been a story for the last 10 seasons or so but this year it took and

even more pathetic turn. 3 players from the Vikings (Jarred Allen, Steve Hutchinson, and Ryan Longwell) left training camp and flew down to Favre's ranch to beg him to return. He did. The Vikings have the 12th pick

in the draft of 2011. Favre finished the season on the sidelines, injured. Not only did his consecutive starts streak end but nude photos of Favre flooded the Internet after a former Jets employee, Jenn Sterger, reported that Favre had made advances on her during his time with the Jets. Needless to say, Favre found himself as the most talked about player on television, radios and articles during the 2010 season.

1. "Should I tackle him backwards?"- The number one story of the NFL 2010 season was the leagues office enforcement of

"helmet to helmet" contact as well as unnecessary roughness. Players like James Harrison of the Pittsburgh Steelers became the faces of players against the league office. Harrison at one point considered retiring because he felt like he could no longer play the game by the rules the NFL was enforcing. The reason this was the number one story to me was because once the league started fining players for its deemed "illegal", every hard hit was followed with a penalty marker or even worse no penalty in the game but a 25 thousand dollar fine. Once the league started enforcing and, in some cases, over enforcing the rules, it made the games hold a sense of reservation by the players that could be picked up by the viewer.

RF