This upcoming season, the NFL will be televising 15 pre-season games highlighting playoff contenders from last season. Of course, the one I’m looking forward to the most will be the Bears vs. the Colts in Indianapolis. It will be a good test to see if any of the sparkle has worn from the fans since winning the world championship. If the magnitude of excitement that filled the RCA dome the day after the big win is any indication, this will be yet another chance for rabid Colts fans to show their support and get to experience a little taste of the Super Bowl on their own soil.

The Colts will get 2 pre-season TV appearances (week 1 facing the Cowboys). For a list of all televised pre-season games, head on over to NFL.com.

Fresh from the slow news day file, the Canadian Press reports that Chicago Bears fan Scott Wiese was denied his request to legally change his name to Peyton Manning after losing a bet when da’Bears lost da’Bowl.

“I had told the judge that I was not doing this because I wanted to change my name, but I was doing it because I was honoring a bet,” Wiese told the Decatur Herald Review.

What the hell is this world coming to? He didn’t make the agreement under duress (though, perhaps he had tossed a few beers back beforehand). The judged said that allowing the name change would cause confusion and infringe on the privacy of Peyton Manning (of the Colts). How, exactly? Who is going to confuse the two? Does this mean that no one can be named after a public figure from now on? What about that Michael Bolton guy from Office Space? Even he caved eventually.

What do you think? Should the judge have let the name change go through? I seem to remember someone getting their name changed to Trout Fishing In America some time ago. That seems a bit more out there than “Peyton Manning.”