With the Carolina Panthers less than three weeks away from the regular season opener against the New York Giants, there are plenty of storylines to be looking forward to.

There are the usual division rivals that include the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints, breaking in the first-year New Meadowlands Stadium in New York, testing the secondary against Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco in Week 3 – but Weeks 5 and 12 should get the most attention from Carolina fans.

The Carolina Panthers opened up the 2010 NFL preseason with a 17-12 loss to the Baltimore Ravens – and I have a confession to make. 

Once heavy rains began pouring down from the Baltimore sky in the second half, I began flip-flopping between the game and MTV's Jersey Shore. But in my defense, it was an anticipated episode where the boys find themselves home from a club, in a hot tub, with a handful of “grenades” – otherwise known as, “a group of ugly, fat, pale, repulsive and/or slovenly females,” according to Urban Dictionary.

 NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has openly stated he feels the league no longer needs four preseason games – and next season, fans may see that number trimmed in half while the regular season adds two games.

When looking at the Carolina Panthers’ quarterback situation entering the 2010 season, the similarities with that of the 2007 Cleveland Browns is uncanny. 

Just for fun, imagine you are a newly hired general manager in charge of putting together a roster for an NBA expansion team. And although not possible in the real world, let's imagine you can have your choosing of any player from another team's roster – so long as that player has never been a part of an NBA all-star team. This means no to Kobe Bryant as your shooting guard, no Dwight Howard at center, and no Deron Williams at point guard. How would you fill in your roster to build the best team possible for the future, keeping in mind that chemistry will play a big role and it is not always best to choose the best “stats” player? Here is what I came up with…