Football Jadedness

First things first, it was a good game on Sunday, not great but good. It was competitive, but filled with flaws. Most noticeably the 3 turnovers by Pittsburgh and the dropped passes by the Packers receivers. The Packers deserved to win, they played better, they made minimal mistakes, and rode a hot streak towards the end of the season (more on this in a minute). If Roethlisberger had been able to connect with Mike Wallace on that deep pass that he overthrew than we may be singing a different tune.

The highlight for me (or the low light if you want to call it that and I think most people would say that it was) was the dreadful halftime performance by the Black Eyed Peas. Visually it looked pretty cool, the neon dancers on the field, the bands outfits were kind of cool looking but that was about it. They lacked energy to me and it looked like they were trying to do too much. The dancing with the singing did not work for me. Half of the songs they did were not even theirs. The dance Usher did was pretty cool as was Slash on the guitar, but Fergie's singing to "November Rain" was just horrendus. I understand what the NFL was trying to do trying to appeal to a younger audience, but to me the classic rock genre of music worked and they put on great shows. The Who, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Petty were good enough in my mind. There is a way to make this work so that it is interesting and entertaining. The Black Eyed Peas are solid on the CD's in the studio but their live performance was lacking. I think it reflects upon the poor choices available with modern popular music. The "underground" stuff that I listen to is fantastic but not a lot of people know who these bands are even if they would put on a great show. It seems that when pop music is at its worst is when the "other" stuff is really rocking and rolling. Just my two cents on that whole thing. 

I do not know about some of you but I am ready for football to be done with for awhile. I referenced this in an earlier blog about my longing for baseball season to arrive (pitchers and catchers are one week away). Football is not favorite sport, it is a close second to baseball for me (which I know is rare in today's 21st century of fast-paced, non-stop, constant movement of the world). One of the growing problems I have with football, primarily the NFL, is Roger Goodell. I wish more people in the media would call him out on this 18 game schedule crap. He says that this is what the fans want. I think he misconstrued the answers he receives from the fans. Fans do not want to pay full price for exhibition games as a part of purchasing season tickets. So Goodell assumes they do not want to pay for the exhibition games so let us just add two more regular season games. Yeah that makes sense. I really do not think there are enough injuries in pro football, the game is not violent enough, yeah lets add two games because we are not making enough money. For the uninitiated that is sarcasm to its highest degree. Did he watch the Super Bowl? Charles Woodson knocked out of the game, Sam Shields injured, Emmanuel Sanders injured. Let us add two more games because that will definitely enhance the product on the field. Come on man! How stupid does he think the fans are? All of this non-sense about how much they care about the players' health, the emphasis on concussions, blah, blah, blah, blah. Cut the crap! We have reached a saturation point with the level of play and how many games can be played with the level of the athletes that we have in today's game. If the owner's are looking for more revenue than maybe you can drop the exhibition games and add some playoff teams (I disapprove of adding more playoff teams, more on this in a minute).

Twelve playoff teams is the maximum amount that I could stand. Let me preface this next set of sentences with this, I have nothing against the Green Bay Packers, but they were a 6 seed that got hot the last few weeks of the season. They barely beat Chicago the last week of the season to get in. They were 10-6, which is a real solid record. They were a good team, should have had a better record than 10-6. I just do not like how it turns out that basically the regular season prior to December does not really matter that much. As long you stay around .500 you have a shot if you can get hot at the end. Arizona a couple of years ago. They were 9-7. I repeat they were 9-7. Is that worthy of an appearance in a championship game? Kurt Warner and that offense got hot at the right time and made it to the Super Bowl. Taking it back a little further the first championship for Roethlisberger. They were a 6th seed. What I am getting at, is no more playoff teams. The NFL is turning into the NBA where the regular season has minimal significance. They have 16 playoff spots for 30 teams. Lets just give everybody a trophy so no one's feelings get hurt. My generation of kids grew up with everyone getting trophies. We are spoiled because of acts like this and a lot of us are soft. When people in support of these big playoffs for college football starting running their mouth. All I can do is scream at the top of my lungs, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! College football has the most meaningful regular season, so do not change it. Why should the 8th best team or the 16th best team have a shot at the championship. It is not right for those at the top who have earned it by playing well in the regular season. Ideally college football could determine the course of championship on a year to year basis. If there are two dominant teams that are undefeated, we do not need a playoff. If there are 4 deserving teams than we can have a plus one system.

Sorry for the rambling, had to get all of that off my chest.

MB

P.S.- New updated QB rankings
1. Brady
2. Manning (by default, BR wins he is here)
3. Rodgers (resume incomplete, another great season and he is at 2, outplayed BR)
4. Roethlisberger (post-season clutchness way overrated upon further review)
5. Brees (could rise again with less int's next season)