Are You Ready For Some Football?

The New England Patriots are kicking off their regular season tonight against the Oakland Raiders at Gillette Stadium; with a somewhat mediocre pre-season, Coach Belichick and his boys will be taking the field at 9 p.m. to see if they can ultimately bring home a fourth Super Bowl title come this January.

The Patriots will not be the only focus at the Razor tonight; New England is playing host to the NFL’s opening game, with lots of celebrities and musicians joining in to kick off the 2005-06 season. There will be live performances by Santana, Green Day, and Trisha Yearwood; Kanye West and Maroon 5 will be performing live via satellite from the West Coast, and a taped segment from the Rolling Stones’ concert in Detroit last week will be aired as well. Creating more news than the Pats is the controversy swarming around Kanye West after he announced this past week that “[President] George Bush doesn’t care about black people” on a live, televised fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina victims. The NFL has decided to stick with their choice of hip-hop star West, who has also promised to “behave” during tonight’s performance.

Belichick could care less about the hoopla surrounding tonight’s entertainment lineup: ''We're coming to play the Raiders," he said. ''That's what we're here for. We're not here for the concert. We're not here for fireworks." The game should prove to be a good one, with the Super Bowl XXXIX banner being revealed at the stadium and the Patriots’ cheerleaders sporting even smaller outfits this season for the males. And the Pats are even favored to win against the Raiders.