Radio City Music Hall in New York, NY is the place to be this weekend as all 31 teams make their best moves to draft the best college football athletes in the country. You can keep track of the round-by-round action of the 2008 NFL Draft here. But so far, here’s a quick glimpse of who’s been drafted thus far:

1 Miami
Long, Jake OT
2 St. Louis
Long, Chris DE
3 Atlanta
Ryan, Matt QB
4 Oakland
McFadden, Darren RB
5 Kansas City
Dorsey, Glenn DT
6 NY Jets
Gholston, Vernon DE
7 New Orleans
Ellis, Sedrick DT
8 Jacksonville
Harvey, Derrick DE
9 Cincinnati
Rivers, Keith LB
10 New England
Mayo, Jerod OLB
11 Buffalo
McKelvin, Leodis CB
12 Denver
Clady, Ryan OT
13 Carolina
Stewart, Jonathan RB
14 Chicago
Williams, Chris OT
15 Kansas City
Albert, Branden OG
16 Arizona
Rodgers-Cromartie, Dominique CB
17 Detroit
Cherilus, Gosder OT
18 Baltimore
Flacco, Joe QB

Obviously, there is still more action to come as Round One of the NFL Draft continues…

Draft Day 2008: April 26 & 27 New York, NY

Draft Day is a big day for football fans. Are you ready? Rounds One and Two go down on Saturday, April 26th starting at 3:00 p.m. EST; while Rounds Three through Seven play out on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. EST. Have you filled out your Mock Draft? Who do you think will go first this year? Do you even remember who went first in Round One last year? Which NFL team had first dibs? Here’s what Round One looks like this year:

1 Miami Dolphins
2 St. Louis Rams
3 Atlanta Falcons
4 Oakland Raiders
5 Kansas City Chiefs
6 New York Jets
7 New England Patriots
8 Baltimore Ravens
9 Cincinnati Bengals
10 New Orleans Saints
11 Buffalo Bills
12 Denver Broncos
13 Carolina Panthers
14 Chicago Bears
15 Detroit Lions
16 Arizona Cardinals
17 Kansas City Chiefs
18 Houston Texans
19 Philadelphia Eagles
20 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
21 Washington Redskins
22 Dallas Cowboys
23 Pittsburgh Steelers
24 Tennessee Titans
25 Seattle Seahawks
26 Jacksonville Jaguars
27 San Diego Chargers
28 Dallas Cowboys
29 San Francisco 49ers
30 Green Bay Packers
31 New York Giants

The Bodog Sportsbook has all your NFL Draft betting props…

Although he’s denying the rumor currently floating around soggy Seattle, 2005 NFL MVP Shaun Alexander could be released by the Seattle Seahawks as early as later today. Reports that the running back was going to be let go surfaced about a month ago when it was learned that the Seahawks had signed Julius Jones and T.J. Duckett in free agency. Still, Alexander is sticking to his story that he’s not going anywhere.

“I haven’t heard that,” he said. “I’ve just seen the stuff that has been in the paper lately.”

In 2005 Alexander scored a then-record 28 touchdowns and led the NFL in rushing with 1,880 yards. But his numbers have never been the same. Alexander ran for 896 yards and seven touchdowns in 2006, when he missed six games with a broken bone in his left foot. Last season, when he missed three games because of a sprained left knee and played the rest of the season with a broken bone in his wrist, Alexander ran for 716 yards and four touchdowns.

Great news for football fans: the NFL announced today its full 17-week, 256-game regular-season schedule for 2008! (Doesn’t it seem like it was just yesterday…when the Giants beat the Pats to win the Super Bowl?)

The 2008-09 season kicks off on Thursday, Sept. 4 at 7:00 p.m. EST on NBC between the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants and the Washington Redskins. The final week of the regular season will be played out on Dec. 28th with 32 teams in action.

Like last year, the NFL will play one regular season game over in London, England at Wembley Stadium. But the League will also take two teams north of the US border into Canada where on Dec. 7 the Buffalo Bills will host the Miami Dolphins in Toronto at the Rogers Centre.

And of course, Super Bowl XLIII is scheduled to go down at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida on February 1, 2009.

It shouldn’t take the sportsbooks long to get up some great NFL props and odds!

Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning and Abby McGrew (Manning’s college sweetheart) are reportedly getting married later this month.

Abby McGrew’s father told The New York Post that Manning and his daughter would tie the knot later this month. Manning’s oldest brother, Cooper, also confirmed to the paper that his brother and McGrew were planning to get married.

Apparently the young couple was recently spotted at the Office of the City Clerk (getting a marriage license, maybe?).

Let’s hope the odds on this marriage succeeding are better than the odds on the New York Giants repeating as Super Bowl champions (they’re currently at 5/1, which isn’t too bad).

It’s never too early to start thinking about next season, is it?

The complete schedule for the upcoming NFL season won’t be released until next month, but the NFL did announce the teams, date and time for the season opener.

The Thursday night season opener will match the Super Bowl-champion New York Giants and the Washington Redskins at 8:30 p.m. EST on NBC on Sept. 4th. As is traditionally the case, the defending Super Bowl champs kick off the season at home. You can expect a raucous crowd to be on hand to give thanks to Eli Manning and his team, for pulling off the upset of last season by handing the heavily favored New England Patriots their first loss of the year.

At the sportsbooks, the New York Giants are listed at 16/1 odds to win the 2009 Super Bowl, while the Washington Redskins are 35/1 odds to win the 2009 Super Bowl.

The USC Trojans have been called Tailback U ever since they were churning out elite NFL players like O.J. Simpson and Marcus Allen. But when it comes to breeding star quarterbacks, the Trojans have to take a back seat to the Michigan Wolverines.

Michigan’s move away from Bo Schembechler’s ground game following his 1990 retirement delivered Tom Brady, currently working his way up the food chain toward Greatest of All Time status. The Wolverines have also produced starting QBs Todd Collins, Elvis Grbac and Brian Griese. And that’s just recent history.

USC would still be on anyone’s Top 5, thanks to Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart. Boston College will be forever linked to Doug Flutie, unless Matt Ryan steals the show, but don’t forget Matt Hasselbeck was an Eagle. Under Jeff Tedford, Cal has sent Aaron Rodgers and Kyle Boller to the bigs, and Washington (Mark Brunell, Chris Chandler) often comes up big in the pass-happy Pac-10.

The new NFL logo will get its debut at the 2008 NFL Draft

A mock draft is a pre-draft of sorts; it’s an opportunity for NFL football experts and fans alike to put their heads together, do a bunch of research and basically guess which players will go where before the actual 2008 NFL Draft takes place on April 26-27 (in New York). If you’re looking for links to other sites that have mock drafts, check out this site.

Here is the official 2008 NFL Draft order. Finishing the season with one win all year, the Miami Dolphins will get the first draft pick. Up next will be th St. Louis Rams, then the Atlanta Falcons third, Oakland Raiders fourth, and the Kansas City Chiefs fifth. Atlanta won a coin toss with Oakland and Kansas City for the right to choose third. All three teams had identical 4-12 records in 2007. The New York Giants, the winners of Super Bowl XLII, are given the last selection, and the losers (the New England Patriots) will pick second to last.

Of the 253 selections, 221 are regular selections in rounds one through seven, and 32 are compensatory selections, distributed among rounds three through seven.

Daunte Culpepper, Derek Anderson and Josh McCown are only a few of the NFL players who are either restricted or unrestricted free agents going into next season. There is also a number of great running backs (Marion Barber, Michael Turner, Julius Jones, to name a few) up for grabs, although for some of these guys I doubt they’ll be going anywhere else.

What’s interesting, too, is the thinking on how involved a team will get in the free agency. The Green Bay Packers and Indianapolis Colts, for example(s), have been fairly quiet. Meanwhile, there are teams like San Francisco who have been on a buying frenzy.

According to NFL.com, the following players are free agents who can negotiate with any NFL team. The signing period for restricted free agents ends April 18, and the signing period for unrestricted free agents ends July 22 (or the first scheduled day of the first training camp, whichever is later).

NFL football reigns supreme in North America as it was announced today that the inaugural season for the All American Football League has been turfed due to lack of financial backing.

The league’s chief executive officer, Marcus Katz, said economic conditions forced the decision to scrap plans for this year.

“I invested 29 million dollars in cash to roll out the operations of the league,” Katz told the station, adding he was owed “a lot more money” by a student loan company.

“When I told the board I would subsidize the league, that was before the bond market collapsed,” Katz said.

Oh well. You know the NFL season will be back without a doubt and now’s the best time to make your 2009 Super Bowl bets. The New England Patriots are the favorites at 1/3 odds to win; the Indianapolis Colts are at 7/1 odds to win; San Diego Chargers are 8/1 odds to win; the Dallas Cowboys are the 9/1 favorites to win; while the 2008 Super Bowl champions the New York Giants are the 16/1 odds to win the 2009 Super Bowl.