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NFL 2011 kickoff > is a mere few hours away. Finally. It was certainly a strange offseason to say the least. An offseason that was mostly a guess on when the lockout would end followed by an intensely condensed few weeks of trades, acquisitions, moves and such segueing into the pre-season.

In celebration of a new season and me being your favorite geek I've made a list of mandatory mobile apps that will get you through the season safe, sound and sane. All of these iOS apps are available for iPhone and iPod Touch and most are optimized for iPad. Don't worry, Phonies - all of these apps have an Android platform version as well. I can't speak to their quality or functionality but we can assume for the most part their Apple counterparts are pretty similar. So without further ado here are the essentials, in no particular order:

ESPN ScoreCenter > this app is on the front page of my iPhone and definitely belongs on yours if you're a fellow sports fanatic. This is the ticker in your pocket for practically real-time [seconds, if that] football scores, stats and updates from every game. You can set alerts for almost anything against your favorite teams [this app is also legit for all sports you want to follow including college] and get push notifications for the start of a game, each scoring play, quarterly scores and/or the final score. I have my 5-time champion San Francisco 49ers set in my favorite teams and since scoring in football isn't as frequent than, say basketball, I have all of the aforementioned alerts set just in case I'm at a Sunday Ticket-less venue or somewhere the stupid Cardinals game is on instead [which is most of the time]. Your favorite teams [configure this in your 'myTeams' settings] will appear first on the scoreboard of the respective sports page you're following and if you tap into the game you'll see the scoring summary and the live gamecast feature or the recap [including box score] if the game is over. This app for iPhone and iPod Touch is really robust but the iPad version is a million times better. It's my most used app on Sunday Funday and my only friend here in the desert when the Niners are playing.

Bleacher Report Team Stream > I love the b/r and this app is way rad. You can pick the sports and teams to get updates from and they're from the local gurus who can sometimes be a little biased but are deeper into the rumors and speculation than the dudes in the national studio.

ESPN Mobile News > this app is your source for the skinny beyond the scores like Peyton Manning's surgeries, Raider fans shooting 49er fans, stupid Tweets from Arian Foster, Cedric Benson's vacation in jail, etc. Plus, if you're an ESPN Insider subscriber like yours truly then you are privileged to the rumors as they're published when you're logged in and you'll be ahead of the game to make moves early like a true insider.

Yahoo! Fantasy, ESPN FFL & CBS Sports > these apps function relatively the same and allow you to manage your fantasy football team rosters without being behind the computer. You can make make lineup adjustments if you're actually at the game, propose a trade at the sports bar or see how many points that Aaron Rodgers touchdown just got you without having to do the math 6 beers deep at 11am and still hungover from the night before. Whatever app you're using, there have been numerous updates that improve it every year so it's easier to toggle between different teams and different leagues within the same interface and there are less crashes when you're frantically checking for updates in the last 2 minutes of a game that determines your success or peril for the week.

Watch ESPN > this mobile magic allows you to watch whatever is being aired on a variety of ESPN channels via your device plus a 3G or Wi-Fi connection. You're still watching on a screen smaller than the ideal but it's convenient if you're in transit, the game is blacked out or whatever and still much much better than watching a scoreboard change slowly. You get access to this app if you already have these ESPN channels through your cable or satellite provider but this accessibility is pretty limited right now [though I have been seeing continuous additions to their providers since last season].

ESPN Passport > with Passport you can log the games you're at, watching or following plus check-in with who you're cheering for and add/view photos of the game action for a socially sporty experience. So maybe this doesn't necessarily belong on this football app survival guide but it is fun to use sometimes as good fodder for fun rivalry trash-talking and game memories [games go back to before you were even born!].

Cheers to a fun and long awaited football season! GO NINERS!!!