The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT March 21, 2012

For those football fans that believed that Christmas came early this year - don't be fooled.

It might have just been a little snow on Tuesday, but there's still plenty of time before the regular season in the NFL starts.

UNLESS FANS have been caught up in March Madness, two of the biggest free agent quarterbacks, Peyton Manning and Matt Flynn, have decided on their next destinations.

Manning, who was cut by Indianapolis, will join the Denver Broncos and Flynn will join the Seattle Seahawks.

When it comes to Manning, wherever he was headed, the expectations of a Super Bowl were going to increase. And that was without throwing a pass or being hit for almost an entire year.

With Manning's arrival, the Broncos will have to decide what to do with Tim Tebow, who led the team to the playoffs last season.

Granted, Tebow hasn't been great - and in no way is comparable to Manning, but after leading the Broncos to the playoffs, he appears to be on his way out of Denver.

Somebody had to stop Tebowmania in Denver.

I just figured it might have been him doing it.

MEANWHILE FLYNN left the Green Bay Packers, where he played the past four seasons, to join the Seahawks as a free agent on Sunday afternoon.

Whether or not he becomes the starter will depend on what happens after the team begins workouts in mid-April.

The good thing about the move is that only $10 million of the contract is guaranteed, and should it not work out, the Seahawks can release him after only two years.

A bad thing is that with Flynn, he's only started two NFL games. In one, he threw for 480 yards and six touchdowns against the Detroit Lions, who made it to the playoffs.

This situation reminds me a lot of what happened with the team when they made the move to Matt Hasselbeck. He hadn’t started many games behind Brett Favre in Green Bay, but had some pretty good years for the team.

If lightning strikes twice, that’s a good thing for Seattle fans.

Much like the weather in spring sports, you’ve just got to wait and see what happens next.

IT MIGHT not have been the usual holiday setting that surrounds high school basketball at North Idaho College, but Saturday’s Idaho All-Star Games were full of St. Patrick’s Day flavor — with both teams decked out in green for the game.

Upon further review, after winning on Saturday, the South boys now lead the North 5-4 in the nine-year history of the game. The South girls, who also won Saturday, hold a 6-3 advantage over the North.

After watching as the boys teams combined for 39 3-pointers in a 119-114 win by the South, it was apparent that neither team needed the luck of the Irish on Saturday when it came to knocking down shots.

Both Manning and Flynn may need a little luck to achieve those huge goals placed on them.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected].