FanHouse Nfl Live Blogging

It may not be the most exciting time on the NFL calendar, but the start of minicamps across the league offer the promise of a new season to come -- and with it, plenty of questions to answer. Will Mark Sanchez or Matthew Stafford start in Week 1? Is Brett Favre going to come back again? Can Jay Cutler lead the Bears to the Super Bowl? Does anyone care about a position other than quarterback?

FanHouse's NFL experts Dan Graziano and Calvin Watkins discussed those topics and more earlier. Read the recap after the jump.

As of tonight, fans everywhere can comfortably start making plans for Sundays (and Thursdays and Mondays, and probably a few Saturdays) from September through January, as the NFL schedule is officially released. We've got all the festivities covered here on FanHouse, with a live chat starting at 6:45. Join in the discussion after the jump.

Julius Peppers is one of the most well-known and popular players on the Carolina Panthers. There are many reasons for this, his 2007 season aside.

First of all, he's a former North Carolina Tar Heel star. Secondly, he's repped the Panthers in the Pro Bowl four times. And finally, because -- and this is true even if you refuse to pull for Tar Heels -- he just feels like a significant part of the Carolina Panthers franchise.

However, it's pretty odd that the Panthers made no effort to re-sign Julius at any point this year, considering his improved play (it's no shock at all that they wanted to make sure he wasn't totally fading before giving him a huge contract). And that makes Peppers' statement to the media after the game about his future in Carolina:

Q: Do you want to be [in Carolina], Julius?
A: Do I want to be here? I want to be in the best situation possible for me.

Peppers also mentioned that he had no interest in discussing the upcoming offseason.

With two weeks left in the season, home-field in the NFC playoffs will be decided Sunday night.

The Carolina Panthers (11-3) play the New York Giants (11-3) under the lights at Giants Stadium. The winner will secure the top seed and all the pressure that goes with it.

The loser is still a playoff team, and in the case of the Giants, still a division champion.

We should be safe in assuming that there will be a lot of talk about this being an "NFC Championship preview". This, of course, likely guarantees that it isn't.

The cast of FanHouse thousands will be with you at 8:15pm, Eastern time. Join us!

Sure, the Bengals are 1-8-1. But they deactivated Chad Johnson Ocho Cinco Fünfundachzig for the game. That's a storyline, right?

And while the Steelers are a big favorite tonight, you have to throw out the record books when these two teams meet. Especially when you're talking about Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Of course, tonight's chat could also disintegrate into a parade of bad jokes, stupid questions ("Can I watch the game online?"), and people frantically typing poorly-structured sentences in ALL CAPS.

No matter what, you should plan on joining us for live coverage of the game. We'll start around 8pm Eastern, which is 4pm in Alaska.

Oh, hello there. Yes. This is a Sunday Night Live Chat Blog. And it is the Patriots versus the Colts. And there are no undefeated stakes at hand like there have been previously. Instead, we've got no Tom Brady, an injured Peyton Manning, Laurence Maroney taking his Kool-Aid elsewhere and the return of Bob Sanders.

But that doesn't mean it won't be chock full of bloggy charm and witty banter! So swing by whenever. It'll probably start right around the time the game does. Which seems appropriate.

Okay, we've been reporting for the last 12 hours that Tony Romo will not start. And, sure enough, he's not starting. Brad Johnson is running the Sweet Ship Cowboy, and he's headed straight into an iceberg, replete with Jerry Jones' ugly Botox-looking mug carved into the face.

So the question is, how long until we see Romo? The Rams are currently pounding the 'Boys 21-7 behind a pair of Steven Jackson touchdowns and Marc Bulger's perfect (3-for-3, touchdown) day.

Johnson has been a little less perfect, going 2-for-6 with an interception. Jones is, by all accounts, doing some cartoon thing in the owner's box with steam coming out of his ears. Wade Phillips is pouting, natch.

It's Monday night, which means it's time for a FanHouse live chat. Come join us for plenty of trash talking between Steelers fans and Ravens fans as we talk about the Ravens' blitzes, the Steelers leaky offensive line, Ben Roethlisberger and Joe Flacco. We'll start chatting at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Hey-ya, folks. We've already seen the Vitamin Cheese get loose in Green Bay and now, what you have all been waiting for. That's right. JaMarcus Russell. Jay Cutler. Al Davis' corpse. Lane Kiffin's diapers. Brandon Marshall in street clothes.

And more importantly, no Tony Kornheiser. Seriously, I've never been so disappointed to dislike someone so much since, well, Dennis Miller. Instead, it's just you, me, the SAP button and any other FanHousers that want to stop by.

And yes, things will get very, very awkward around here if the Minnesota game doesn't end before 10:15 and I'm forced to make small talk about something I'm not watching. But we'll try and make do. We kick off this piece at 10:00 pm and will start the snark at 10:15.

The Aaron Rodgers era begins tonight whether the Packers fans are ready for it or not, and don't you think he'll be feeling the pressure after Brett Favre's performance on Sunday? We'll also see what Jared Allen looks like in purple, and Adrian Peterson will start his run for 2,000 yards.

We'll be here to chat about it with a live chat, starting around 7 p.m. ET. To join us, hop in after the jump.