Why does football season start so early?

I want more of this.

In the past couple weeks I've seen people all over twitter and facebook express their excitement about the return of football (both college and pro).  Personally I just get annoyed.  And not because I don't like it, but because it's dumb that the season begins this time of year.  Football is not a sport that is meant to be played in the summer time.  It's ridiculously hot under all those pads and helmets, and guys seem to pass out from dehydration and heat exhaustion all the time.  Obviously colder weather would help that.

But honestly I'd be lying if I told you my concerns were about the players.  From a fan perspective, it makes no sense to start filling your weekend afternoons with football on television when the weather is still so nice out.  This past Sunday I would have gone to the beach if it weren't for the Patriots game.  In addition to being able to take better advantage of the final days of summer, here's two other things that would improve if the NFL and NCAA started their seasons three weeks later:

1.  That stupid month off between the end of the college season (final weekend of November) and the bowl games (late December/early January) would no longer exist.  Last year Notre Dame didn't play for 44 days leading up to the BCS Title Game.  That's more than half of their regular season, in which they played 12 games over a span of 85 days.

2.  February sucks.  Everybody calls it the worst sports time of the year, and complains about there being nothing to watch in between the Super Bowl and March Madness.  I can't think of a single reason why anyone wouldn't prefer spending their Sundays inside watching the NFL in February rather than September.

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