By RYAN DIXON

I wish I could say I wrote this prior to the NFL games played during week one, but alas, I didn’t. Call me a cheater but there were way too many important games in week one for me to just throw these predictions out there. Allow me to apologize ahead of time to all the Dolphin and Bucs fans out there now.

Let’s start off in the NFC with the East division. The Super Bowl is being held in Dallas and the Cowboys are going to play like it. No doubt they take the division. I wish my Eagles could do it but not with Kolb at the helm. In the North it’ll be one last shot for Brett Farve. All he needs is for Adrian Peterson to hold on to the ball this year. The Saints take the South hands down, but it’s going to take more than a Gulf oil spill to excite this team back to the Super Bowl. If Alex Smith doesn’t completely suck this year, then the 49ers will take the West. Sorry Pete Carrol. The Packers and the Redskins, behind two great quarterbacks, take the two wild card slots for the playoffs. In the Wild Card round, the Redskins upset the Cowboys in Dallas. I’m taking the Packers over the 49ers in the second game. The Saints handle the Redskins easily to reach the NFC Championship game. In a battle of Division rivals, Brett Farve makes one last push and reaches his second consecutive NFC Championship game by defeating the Packers. Farve continues the miracle run by shaking off the monkey on his back and defeating the Saints to reach Super Bowl XLV.

The AFC will feature some very lopsided games this year due to the high scoring offenses. The Jets take the East again this year thanks to another stellar year from their defense. The Ravens take the North. Many are pegging the Bengals, but with the signing of Owens, they took catches away from Ochocinco. The South goes to the Colts for the millionth year in a row. The Texans will give them a run, though. Even without Tomlinson, the Chargers win the West. My wild card picks for the AFC are the Texans and the Patriots. The Texans fall to their division rivals, Colts and the Patriots upset the Ravens in the Wild Card round. In the second round, the Colts will easily dispatch the Chargers and the Jets somehow manage to beat the Patriots. The AFC Championship game will be won by the Jets on the road in Indianapolis to set up Farve to face one of his former teams in the Super Bowl.

My picks may be a little out there, but how “feel-good” would it be when Brett Farve throws a game winning touchdown as time expires to win Super Bowl LXV 23-20 over the Jets?

And this time, Farve does retire for good.