Britney is a big noise in Washington

Britney Spears 'kicks off ' the 2003 NFL season in Washington tonight but American Football will have to wait for its own young icon to take centre stage.

Quarterback Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons, the most exciting player the NFL hoped to have on show this season, broke his arm in a pre-season friendly and will be out for at least another month.

By then it could all be over for his team because without their key man for a chunk of what is only a 16-game regular season, his return may come too late for the Falcons to reach the post-season play-offs let alone Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston, Texas, on 1 February.

So it's down to Britney to catch the eye as the NFL uses a music extravaganza to herald the new season for the second year running. Last year it was Bon Jovi in New York's Times Square . . . this time round it's Britney plus Aerosmith, Mary J Blige and Aretha Franklin in a concert at Washington's National Mall. Once that's out of the way the football can begin as the Washington Redskins take on the New York Jets at FedExField. It's hard to see either of these two teams as contenders for a place in the Super Bowl, particularly as the Jets also lost their promising young quarterback, Chad Pennington, with a fractured and dislocated left wrist in another pre-season friendly. He could be out for up to three months.

The Jets will now have to turn to 40-year-old passer Vinny Testaverde to lead them tonight.

Looking ahead, Monday night's game, which sees the reigning Super Bowl champions the Tampa Bay Buccaneers visit the Philadelphia Eagles, is the pick of week one. So, who'll be champions this year?

The Pittsburgh Steelers won four Super Bowls in six years, the last at the end of the 1979 season. Since then only three teams have won back-to-back Super Bowls . . . the San Francisco 49ers, the Dallas Cowboys and the Denver Broncos. Salary-capping has evened-out the playing field and in the past five years nine different teams have reached the Super Bowl.