Even though it's February, it is presently "the middle of football season". This will probably come to the dismay/disgust/annoyance of those who try to deny the greatness of football, but rest easy, this current upswing is very temporary. So temporary, in fact, that it will be over by the time the sun rises tomorrow.

Even though college football season formally ended on January 10 with a hideous and foul thud, the past week of football in America has been made enjoyably relevant by:

1)...the great 2011 edition of the NFL Playoffs. This year's playoffs have been full of close games, intrigue, standout performances, trash talk...and foot fetish references. What more could you ask for? The NFL might have asked for more since the established triumvirate of quarterback star power in the league, Tom Brady/Peyton Manning/Drew Brees, went a collective 0-3 this January. These three Super Bowl champs have had the spotlight stolen by younger QBs like the unbelievably impressive Aaron Rodgers and the potentially lucky Mark Sanchez. Of course, there's always Ben Roethlisberger, who already has 2 Super Bowl wins, but whose legacy is already (and justifiably so) defined by motorcycle wrecks and sexual assault accusations in Tahoe and Georgia.

Despite the utterly contemptible nature of Big Ben and some of his teammates, the truly redeeming part of the Steelers is their coach, Mike Tomlin. He's as impressive of a young coach as the NFL has ever seen. It is almost unbelievable to think he could have two Super Bowl victories under his belt well before his 40th birthday, with a potential for 20 or 30 more years of coaching to go. Between Tomlin and Aaron Rodgers, the Super Bowl is definitely worthy of attention this year, even if all anyone wants to talk about are the off-field indiscretions of the Steelers' current QB and the Packers' former one. Oh yeah, there's always the commercials and the Black Eyed Peas halftime show.

2)...College Football Signing Day, clearly the biggest day in college football between the BCS Championship and the start of the following season. Unfortunately, what was once an honest and exciting day of players announcing their intentions, complete with smiling parents, awkward coaches and goofy hats, has turned in a media spectacle, just like everything else. Each February, the ante is upped for who can make the biggest splash with not just their recruitment, but their announcement that culminates it all. Well, as of last year, the big announcement is not the culmination in some cases. There seems to be an emerging trend of top offensive linemen recruits having trouble making up their minds on where they want to play in college. Last year, Seantrell Henderson, from Minnesota, committed to USC, but reneged after the NCAA put the Trojans on probation, as if every single person on Earth didn't see that coming. Regardless, that level of indecision was clearly trumped by this year's #1 offensive line recruit, Cyrus Kouandijo, from suburban Washington DC in Maryland. Although his brother is already on the team at Alabama, he apparently had a great weekend visit to Auburn the weekend before Signing Day, so he announced his commitment to Auburn on national TV in a planned event at his high school. However, the recruiting process isn't over at the announcement. There still has to be paperwork filed and it never came (Jokes about there not being fax service to Auburn notwithstanding) for Kouandijo the Younger. Well, three days later, Cyrus is on board at Alabama and there's paperwork to back it up this time.

That little story is not meant to salt Auburn's wounds (for once), even though it came on the heels of another top-notch recruit, Brent Calloway, initially giving his preference to Alabama, then committing to Auburn on a nationally televised stage, only to switch back to Alabama. The same thing could just as easily happened to Alabama or any other school, but it shows part of what is wrong with the system. Unfortunately there isn't really an easy fix and as the national media (especially ESPN) become more and more enamored with the whole process, it is highly unlikely to get any better anytime soon. This year's edition of Signing Day also featured such sterling subplots as:

-The SEC receiving a complaint from a member school because Alabama used "provocatively" dressed females to post the names of players that had sent in their faxed letters of intent on a webcam. Was this a necessary move by Alabama? Absolutely not. Is this a complete non-story since the girl in the "provocative" outfit was a member of the Alabama dance team that works in the football office and was performing at a basketball game the same night in said "provocative" outfit? Absolutely.

-Ok, here's one that went against Alabama. The nation's #1 running back recruit, Isaiah Crowell, from Columbus, Georgia picked his home-state Bulldogs over Alabama. Not only did he pick the Bulldogs, he literally picked up a Bulldog as part of the process. This goes far beyond the hat or balloons behind the table that have become so played out, but was actually a little endearing...in a way. General consensus would dictate that the puppy is cute, so this was a fairly cute moment. Sadly though, it came just days before the extremely premature death of Georgia's real bulldog mascot, UGa VIII.

-Then there's the story of Floyd Raven, from Louisiana, who apparently was having a difficult time deciding between scholarship offers from Ole Miss and Texas A&M. Since these are still 18 year old dependents, they are not always equipped to make big decisions and the person most likely to step in, usually does. In this case, it was deemed an honest mistake, but it is hard to call forgery an "honest" anything. By nature, forgery is quite dishonest, but all's fair in love, war and big-time college football recruiting.

3)...the NFL labor dispute. Well, given that today is Super Bowl Sunday, this very important issue is completely unimportant for the next 10 hours or so. Try again on Day-After-Super-Bowl Monday.