Skip to main content

I'm rooting for a tie

I'm watching the New England Patriots at Indianapolis Colts game right now, wondering if there will be any point to the rest of the season. Both teams are undefeated, and most feel that today's winner (whoever that is) will go on to win the Super Bowl.

I don't disagree. Since the Patriots are on the road, I think they become pretty clear Super Bowl favorites if they win today. (Perhaps they already should be, considering their college football-like margins of victory). If Indianapolis wins by, say, 10, I think you'd have to consider them the overwhelming championship favorites.

I believe some other teams have a shot this year, but I still don't know which teams those are. I'd be happy for Brett Favre if Green Bay can keep up its miracle season. It'd be good to see the Cowboys make the Super Bowl, if only to see their fans emerge from the woodwork, and then disappear just as quickly after the inevitable title game defeat. (At least, that's how every Cowboys fan I've ever met would handle it.) And I'd be thrilled if the Broncos could put up more than one score against the Lions.

Having said all that, there's nothing in the NFL more boring than a team that dominates all season long. I would hate to see either team go undefeated and roll through the playoffs. Where's the excitement in that?

The solution? A tie today. I want to see this game go down to the absolute wire-preferably, with a goal-line stand at the end. Maybe even with some controversy, like a bad call or one of those replays where it looks like the guy scored but isn't called in. You know, where one fanbase says "he was obviously in" and the other side says he wasn't even really that close. Something like that, something that can add spice to the eventual Colts-Patriots playoff showdown.

All I'm saying is: look, the Broncos are awful. Don't make me give up on the whole NFL season today.

Comments

blaine said…
I hate the Patriots, and all the other Boston sports teams, but they look like a lock to win the superbowl again this year. It seems the Colts certainly had the refs on their side, but still couldn't get it done so I think it will be very difficult to win in Foxboro in the playoffs. Meanwhile the 49ers look as terrible as ever. What a crappy football season.
9:09 AM
John said…
The Colts couldn't get it done, Blaine, because they are softer than tissue paper, which you have to be to blow a 10 point 4th quarter lead in your own house (a dome, no less) against your biggest rival.

Now that the Pats have won, I hope they do run the table just so I can stop hearing about the '72 Dolphins for the rest of my life.
11:43 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The NFL hates you.

It's no joke. It seems like the more devoted of a fan you are, the less the league cares about your continued patronage. The best example is the league's blackout policy, a wonderful gift from the league to its teams granting them added market pressure to charge whatever ridiculous amount they want for tickets. If a game doesn't sell out, the home market doesn't get to watch it on TV. (Basically, a 75-mile radius around the stadium doesn't get to see the game on TV if all the tickets aren’t bought first.) The NFL, like a needy girlfriend, says, "Hey, fans, you like us? Prove it." Then the league asks us to prove it again and again, week after week, year after year. I live within 75 miles of what should be John Elway Stadium, but Broncos fans are pretty much shielded from this stuff, right? Not all of them. One of my friends is as supportive a fan as the NFL can have: he's a Broncos season ticket holder and an NFL Sunday Ticket subscriber. That mean...
4 comments
Read more

Did CU ever win the Pac-12?

In 2010, I bet a college buddy of mine (who longtime readers may remember as the only other contributor to Hole Punch Sports) that CU’s football team would not win the Pac-12 in the next 15 years. Guess what? It’s time for me to gloat, because I was right. Why we were doomed Back in the day, a lot of people made the argument that CU should join the Pac-12 because we’d get so much more TV money there. Of course, given college football is the answer to the question, “what if you had a sport where multiple teams were like the Yankees, and you created a whole universe of haves and have-nots?”, then yeah, you want to be aligned with some of the haves. But the question in my mind wasn’t, “will CU be better off with more money?” That’s an obvious yes. The question I asked was, will CU be any more competitive in their own conference if they’re competing against teams who are also getting more money? I couldn’t see why they would be. The mathematical angle Legend has it that Cowboys runn...
1 comment
Read more

The day the music died

Seven years, seven months…actually, almost eight months, if you’re keeping track . That feels right, but also way too short. I started following the NBA around the 1996-97 season. I jumped on the Bulls bandwagon and will never regret it, but my favorite team was my hometown one, the Denver Nuggets. They went 21-61. The next year they were 11-71. I learned early on how few players actually made it big, even the most hyped. Antonio McDyess was one of the two real talents we had in those lean years, but his temperament and durability made him a disappointment. Still, I loved those teams: inside enforcers like Tommy Hammonds and Danny Fortson, the promising Bobby Jackson, the high-flying Darvin Ham, and even Nick Van Exel. The other talent was a young point guard named Chauncey Billups who I once saw, in person, hit a three from about halfway between the three-point line and halfcourt to beat the shot clock. Like it was nothing. I remembered pulling for us to get him in the draft, but wh...
5 comments
Read more