(Only one more week!)
In a few days, the AFC Champion Pittsburgh Steelers will face the NFC Champion Green Bay Packers in Jerry's Place (a.k.a. the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas) in the biggest game of the entire football calendar: Super Bowl XLV. It promises to be a wonderful showing between two great teams with two completely different styles of play along with a interesting week leading up to the game with Media Day, the Hall of Fame 2011 class announcement, Goodell's state of the league address and more. Unfortunately, before all that takes place, we have no choice as football fans but to deal with this dreaded Super Bowl bye week.
The Super Bowl bye week, for those of you new to the sport, is the one week of the NFL season where, after 21 weeks of continuous weekly football action, everything just suddenly stops without any purpose other than to give players and coaches a nice week off while also building up even more suspense to the big game. Its like a car driving at 80 miles per hour having to suddenly stop to let an old lady cross the street, only to go back to driving 80 miles again beginning the night of the Pro Bowl all the way until the Lombardi Trophy is officially given out on Super Bowl Sunday. It also is the week where we finally get to see a small preview of the horrible Sunday afternoons to come in the world of sport starting three weeks from now, with nothing to look forward to during this time period but golf tournaments that are only important 10% of the time and regular season games from neither the NBA or MLB as the NFL's bastard substitute. Its the worst week of the entire season, and its even worse by the fact that there is absolutely no other NFL game to pick other than Satan's afterbirth, the Pro Bowl (though, if you think about it, maybe we should all enjoy it since this game and next week's Super Bowl might be the last football game that we'll see until August 2012).
So, because there is absolutely no game to pick and/or analyze, I would totally understand if you decide on skipping the rest of this post and move on with the rest of your life. However, if you do feel like reading, then here are some NFL related random thoughts to wrap this post up nicely with a nice little bow:
-The lockout. It's a topic that I have been avoiding over these past few months on this site, but since there is no major game going on I figure that's it about time that I finally give my two cents on it.
It's hard to believe that in an era of football where fans are watching the games at record rates (all-time regular season viewership, 50,000,000+viewers for the NFC and AFC championship game this past week, an expected American TV viewing record for Super Bowl XLV), billions of dollars in TV deals (including some $2 billion per season by ESPN for their new Monday Night Football deal) and unprecedented gross by the league in general, that the NFLPA and team owners would decide now to have a millionaires vs. billionaires dispute, but this is unfortunately the case. This possible lockout is due to several issues ranging from the share of the league's revenue to retired players. . For one thing, the team owners believe that they got screwed during the last CBA agreement in 2006 when then commissioner Paul Tagliabue agreed to giving the players 59.6 percent of the total revenue (or around 50 percent according to NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith) while making the owners of the league's top 15 franchises subsidize with the league's 17 least grossing franchises, and would like for players to take a certain pay cut for the next CBA.
The second issue has to deal with the possibility of an eighteen game seasons. Owners would like to add the additional regular season home game to their schedule while reducing the preseason schedule from two homegames to one in order to earn a much bigger profit in ticket revenue, while players would like to keep the sixteen game situation in tact so their risk of getting injured during the season doesn't increase. Others issues include a potential rookie wage scale and the league's policy towards retired football players, which at this point are treated about as well as Wall Mart employees.
Personally, I don't really give a crap how both sides end up finishing the deal. It could end with both sides agreeing to give all of their money to MLB for all I care. Anything to end this possible devastating labor lockout is fine by me. However, I suppose that the one thing I would root for is to limit the rookie wage salary while also improving the conditions of retired NFL players. The fact of the matter is that the amount of money top draft picks earn these days is outrageous, with players like Jamarcus Russell and Matt Leinart earning more money before they even played then certain Hall of Fame players earned during their entire career. The NFL owners have the chance of saving about $200 million from the previous CBA agreement that they could save if they do receive a rookie salary cap similar to the one in the NBA right now. If it were up to me, I would try to use that $200 million in finding a way to improve the conditions of NFL players following retirement. But even that I will be okay with whatever both sides agree too just as long as I end up seeing actual NFL football come this September.
This, and no 18 game regular season. I love the NFL, but I hate to see the product get ruined in favor of more cash.
-At first I kind of admired commissioner Roger Goodell for his tough enforcement on suspensions to players violating the league's personal conduct policy, but now I think that he's just a putz. For starters, he wants to improve players safety and enforcing it with these ground breaking new fines and suspension implementing after the bloodbath that was week six (how is that going, by the way?), yet he wants the league to move to an eighteen game regular season which makes about as much sense as trying to stop a wildfire by having firefighters using zero water. If anything, wouldn't you try to do it by reducing the amount of games instead? Second, he keeps trying to make himself into this no nonsense law figure, yet when he had the chance to suspend Brett Favre for the numerous reports circulating on Deadspin, he did absolutely nothing. Let's just hope that he can redeem himself over the next few months by having the league avoid a potential lockout. during the 2011 season, which could very well harm the sport much like it did to MLB in 1994 and the NHL in 2004-05.
-Are we sure that Tennessee Titans owner/double bird enthusiast Bud Adams isn't just Al Davis in disguise? The reason is because I can't think of another explanation for the Titans releasing prized QB Vince Young and their greatest head coach in franchise history, Jeff Fisher, when the team only needed to decide between one of them when the season is over.
-If 48 year old Herschel Walker really is serious about wanting to play football again, he should start playing for a UFL team first. After all, it makes perfect sense. After all, he could automatically become of the league's most easily recognizable and most popular figures like he was in the USFL, the last professional football league to challenge the NFL. Besides, it would be a great way to prove to the thirty two teams in the NFL, if he does play well in the UFL a.k.a. the minor league of American professional football that is, that he should at least deserve a tryout. However, I still think that is just a simple case of an ex-football player craving to relive the good times while forgetting that the game is much more tougher than before.
-Mendenhump!
-Looks like interceptions aren't the only "picks" that Mark Sanchez does on gameday.
-Here is my vote for the three greatest NFL championship games of all-time, only because I'm doing my Super Bowl countdown next week and I want to somehow continue this temporarily weekly feature of picking the best games during a certain round of the playoffs going:
3. 1950: Los Angeles Rams vs. Cleveland Browns (28-30)
In 1950, the NFL added three teams from the AAFC (the All American Football Conference). One of those three teams was the Cleveland Browns led by QB Otto Graham and winners of the only four titles in AAFC history. In their first season as members of the league, the Browns picked up right where they left off, surprising every NFL fan by finishing the season 11-2 and winners of the American conference after defeating the New York Giants in a playoff. Their opponent would be Cleveland's former football team, the Rams (now in Los Angeles), winners of the National Conference and led by the dynamic passing duo of Hall of Famers Bob Waterfield and Norm Van Brocklin.
The game would be a close, back and forth contest, with neither team leading by more than eight points. In the fourth quarter, with the Rams up 28-20 thanks to 312 yards passing by Bob Waterfield (although it was outweighed by his four interceptions) and 2 TD rushes by RB dick Hoerner, Cleveland struck back with a Graham 14 yard TD pass to Rex Bumgardner to cut LA's lead to 28-27. Then, with less than twenty seconds, Browns kicker Lou Groza would kick a 16 yard field goal to give Cleveland the 30-28 lead along with their first lead all game long. The Rams weren't able to respond, and the Browns would win their first of four total NFL titles in franchise history. Los Angeles would get the opportunity at revenge, however, defeating the Browns 24-17 in the NFL championship game a year later.
2. 1958: Baltimore Colts vs. New York Giants (23-17 OT)
The Greatest Game Ever Played, or at least the most influential. The Giants were leading the game 17-14 with about two minutes to go and its offense facing a third down situation with a chance to put the dagger on this championship game. However, Giants RB Frank Gifford was not able to get the first down as he was stopped short in a controversial ruling by the referees, leaving the Colts offense led by legendary QB Johnny Unitas a chance to either tie the game up. The Colts possession started at their own 14 yard line and ended at the Giants 13 yard line after a masterful drive engineered by Unitas which, in turn, set up a game tying field goal by kicker Steve Myhra. The two teams were then forced to play into sudden death overtime, the first in the history of the NFL and in all of professional football (at one point during the end of regulation, many players on both sides thought that they were going to end the game co-champion since they've never heard of overtime). New York was first to receive the football, but were forced to punt which gave Unitas and crew a chance to win the game.
What followed next would be one of the greatest drives in NFL history, as Baltimore drove down the field on 13 plays for 80 yards, ending with John Amache's famous 1 yard TD run to the Giants endzone. Seventeen individuals involved in both teams were eventyually inducted into the Hall of Fame including Unitas, who went 26 of 40 for 349 yards and a TD, Vince Lombardi (then Giants offensive coordinator), Tom Landry (then Giants defensive coordinator) and Colts WR Raymond Berry, who had 12 catches in the game for 187 and a TD which still stands as the NFL record for a championship game. The game also ended up having some long term affects that would affect the NFL and pro football for the better. For one thing, the game was broadcast on NBC (the first NFL game to be shown to a national audience) and watched by a then record 45 million people whose views of professional football improved greatly after the game. One of the 45 million watching was Texas billionaire Lamar Hunt, who would use this game as motivation for co-founding the American Football League which, along with expansion and the use of television, would further improve the standing of proffesional football in American sports.
1. 1967: Dallas Cowboys vs. Green Bay Packers (20-17)
I already gave a sypnosis of the game last week. The reason that I chose this over the so-called Greatest Game Ever Played was because of the fact that the #2 choice wasn't really that exciting up until the final five minutes, much like Super Bowl XLII a few years back. For the most part, it was a pretty ugly game with both teams combining for seven turnovers on the game. The Ice Bowl, on the other hand, was pretty competitive throughout and much more exciting to watch as a viewer. Besides, I don't think you can name a weather game much more memorable in NFL lore than this game.
And now, my vote for the greatest AFL Championship Game of all time:
1962: Dallas Texans vs. Houston Oilers (20-17 2OT)
In the longest game in the AFL's short ten year history (as well as the only AFL Championship game to ever go into overtime) the Dallas Texans (now the Kansas City Chiefs) led by legendary head coach Hank Straham and the Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans) met in a matchup of two 11-3 teams. The Texans commanded the game in the first half with a 17-0 lead at the half thanks to two rushing touchdown by Abner Haynes. But in the second half, Houston came right back with 17 points of their own to tie things up at the end of regulation. Both teams failed to score in the first overtime period, but Texans DE Bill Hull ended those final fifteen minutes by intercepting a pass from future Hall of Fame QB George Blanda, setting up Dallas football at Houston's 48 yard line. In the first two plays of the second overtime, Texans RB Jack Spikes picked up 19 yards from scrimmage setting up good field position for Dallas to win the game on a field goal. Two plays later, kicker Tommy Brooker did just that, scoring a 25 yarder to give Dallas their first AFL title in franchise history and ending Houston's chance at a three peat (they had previously won the last two AFL titles).
-My Pro Bowl prediction for you future members of Gamblers Anonymous:
AFC (30), NFC (38). MVP: Drew Brees.
So...that's that, I guess. Be sure to come back next week for the epic, super spectacular season finale of the 2010 picks column where I will break down all of the key aspects of Super Bowl XLV while also revealing mj50's pick and my pick for the winner of this game. Hopefully the post will be a dramatic improvement over last year's Super Bowl preview post, where I infamously had CBS broadcasting the game as one of the reasons why the Colts were going to win the game. If not, I would like to apologize beforehand. Until then, enjoy this week of glorious nothingness!
Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15
If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you just have any suggestions or
tips for my next blog entry, e-mail me at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.
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