When Does Football Season Start Again?

If you're a fantasy football fan, the answer is "It's started already! Where have you BEEN?"

Last week the People's Pigskin received an invitation to  join a league for the upcoming NFL season. And this week, your local stores have received its first shipment of (drumroll, please) fantasy football preview magazines.

The People's Pigskin will offer some in-depth reviews of the major magazines over the summer. But for now, it's time to ask one major question: Why print your fantasy preview less than a week after Memorial Day? Bear in mind that as I type this:

* Brian Westbrook is still looking for a National Football League team to call home for this season.

* So is Terrell Owens.

* Vincent Jackson has yet to sign his contract tender from the San Diego Chargers and is reportedly making veiled threats about skipping this season altogether.

* And if you have any insight as to what Brett Favre plans to do between now and Christmas, do everyone a favor and let the Minnesota Vikings know, because they don't seem to have the first clue.

Has any of this uncertainty convinced the fantasy "experts" that maybe they should wait to put out their magazines? Here's a snippet from ESPN's fantasy preview, one of the first ones out of the gate, about how their experts compiled their player rankings for the 2010 season:

"A mere two days after the NFL draft, our stable of fantasy experts sequestered themselves in a bright-but-windowless room in Bristol HQ, next door to the 'War Room,' where ESPN's pro analysts gather to watch the games on Sunday."

The NFL draft ended on April 24. That means the ESPN experts were compiling their rankings on April 26 -- a mere four months and two weeks before the start of the regular season.

I'm not saying you should take your brand-spanking-new fantasy previews and use them to mulch your garden. But I am saying that if you take them to your fantasy draft, you should take along a salt shaker, because you may need to take their advice with more than a grain of salt.

We'll be back with a peek at this week's NASCAR venue.