ARE YOU READY? ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

Yes it's back .... and don't you just love those musical intros that the Yanks are brilliant at!

The NFL kicks off the new season with the Thursday night NFC rematch (Friday, 10.30am AEST).

It's the Minnesota Vikings once again travelling down to the deep south to take on the New Orleans Saints.

Quarterback Brett Favre, who is 40, returns to the scene of what was supposed to be his last game ... more comebacks than Dame Nellie Melba!

But I'm predicting it's gonna be bad news for the Vikings ... again!

They are banged up and the Saints are healthy and ready to rumble.

Quarterback Drew Brees and running machine Reggie Bush will look to light up the rebuilt Superdome once again and send the fans delirious.

Expect the Saints to explode out of the blocks, so rather than take them just to win outright .... let's juice up our odds and take them to lead at half-time as well!

$50 New Orleans Saints to beat Minnesota (with halftime/fulltime double) at $1.70

(A little aside for those who read my article yesterday about needing 23 people in a room for it to be 50/50 that any two have the same birthday.

I was having lunch at the casino yesterday with a 'pal' who read it and insisted that you only need 20 people not 23 .... so we bet the lunch tab on it.

We agreed to ask 20 random people their birthdates. Well he hit paydirt after only 13 - we found two pensioners born on September 8!

Of course I was done like a dinner .... they all come in on their birthdays to collect their $5 vouchers!)