My NFL season officially ended December 31, 2006.

As San Francisco kicker Joe Nedney split the uprights in overtime at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium, he cleaved my orange and blue heart in twain.

I am a lifelong fan of the Saints but I am finding little enjoyment in the NFL’s postseason.

For some reason, the Broncos loss on New Year’s Eve and the subsequent murder of Darrent Williams, has cast a pall on the rest of the season.

After a seasoned removed from a spot in the AFC Championship my team failed to live up to the elevated expectations of the Mile High City.

So, it is with a heavy heart that I bid adieu, to the NFL campaign and get ready for the next big season.

Every season, this sport supplies some of the best story lines. Every year there is the emergence of a long-shot that makes a run at championship glory. This season promises to be no different.

I am talkin’ tennis season baby!

This is just what I needed to break me out of the winter doldrums and lift my spirits above the three-feet of snow outside my window. I can see exotic locales such as Doha, Paris, London and this week Melbourne for the 2007 Australian Open.

As the mercury threatens to creep above freezing in Denver, I can crank up the air conditioning in my apartment and watch as the players and fans swelter under the Extreme Heat set of rules of down under.

Since the tournament began on Monday, we have seen the rubberized playing surface in Melbourne reach above 120-degrees, causing the fair-haired Russian and tourney No. 1 seed Maria Sharipova see visions during a match where she was close to becoming the first No.1 to get bounced from the tournament in the first round. Talk about drama.

American James Blake is hoping to bring US men’s tennis back to the glory days of Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and John McEnroe. So far his face is getting harrier and harrier – a great sign that the early rounds of the season’s first Grand Slam are going his way. You see, Blake practices a superstition more commonly seen with hockey players. As long as a tournament or win streak goes on, the players go without shaving and Blake has adopted this same practice.

So with a bit of luck and a good men’s draw, we will see just how hairy an American tennis player can become. Exciting stuff!

Back on the women’s side, Martina Hingis begins the second year of her comeback after being away from tennis for three years to recover from injuries. Hingis started last Australian Open ranked No. 349 and has climbed up the rankings to No. 7 this year. Hingis is also on a collision course with friend and rival Kim Clijsters, who ironically, is starting her farewell tour. Clijsters is hanging up her racquet at the end of the season to start a family at the ripe old age of 23.

Clijsters ended Hingis’ run at last year’s Aussie open title in the quarterfinals and with any luck these two will meet there this year. You can’t script this stuff!

But the best part of tennis is that the sport generally remains “clean.” Rarely, if ever, do the words “steroids,” and “tennis player,” meet in the same sentence. Off-the-court problems remain off-the-court. Save for the one crazed-fan incidence with Monica Seles over ten years ago, fans stay in their seats and players don’t go after them.

Win or lose, players will take time after each match to sign autographs for fans and talk to the press.

Tennis is physically draining but takes a mentally tough athlete to win– each match is a chess game. Tennis takes unbelievable focus because you have to play the ball as much as you have to play your opponent.

For me, tennis will always mark the impending change of seasons as winter melts in to spring and spring into training camp. So while the rest of my neighbors try to dig out of the snow, I will crank up the air-con, sip a koala colada and watch another grown man’s beard grow.