The Conference Championships are a Yawn and How to Fix Them
With 35 seconds left in Super Bowl LXIII Santonio Holmes broke my heart. I've always been a big fan of Kurt Warner the man, and the athlete. The 2008 playoffs were magical, exciting and improbable, everything the playoffs should be, but Holmes ended that with his touchdown catch at the end of the game. My team didn't win, but nevertheless, the 2008 playoffs were the most exciting I've watched. Unfortunately, ever since that chilly February evening the football gods have turned their faces from me.
Here it is, Conference Championship Weekend, and I could care less. I cheer for the Eagles, root for the Bears, and still hope for the Cardinals. Where are they? Dead, dead, and deader. Instead, we have four teams in which I have only marginal interest. Yeah, I'd like to see Manning get another ring, but by the same token, it would be fun to witness Brady getting his fourth. And the evening game? The 49ers and Seahawks could get caught in traffic and miss the game for all I care
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How can we fix this? Two solutions come to mind. The first, and best, solution is to let me pick one of the wild card teams. I don't mean pick as in "This team will win by three," I mean pick as in, "I don't give a damn what the Bear's record was, they are IN THE PLAYOFFS!" I wrote Roger Goodell about this idea, and the crickets are still chirping. I guess it got filed in the same folder the Pope placed my "Why not get behind a Norse mythology renaissance?" request.
The second idea is to play my own season. I'm not talking some lame-ass Madden video game for the attention deficit, but rather Strat-O-Matic Football. Strat-O-Matic is a statistic-based board game that accurately and immersively recreates professional football. Players perform according to their statistics, and you perform as the coach, calling the plays, setting up the defenses and such. It's great fun. My buddies and I gamed through the entire 1971 season my senior year in high school (Yeah, I'm a geek.). Unfortunately, I no longer have the time for a 32-team, 16-game season.
In the end I guess I stuck with the Patriots and Broncos, and those other two teams that I don't give a damn about. And my picks? After today we will all be stuck with the Broncos and Seahawks.
See you tomorrow.
Here it is, Conference Championship Weekend, and I could care less. I cheer for the Eagles, root for the Bears, and still hope for the Cardinals. Where are they? Dead, dead, and deader. Instead, we have four teams in which I have only marginal interest. Yeah, I'd like to see Manning get another ring, but by the same token, it would be fun to witness Brady getting his fourth. And the evening game? The 49ers and Seahawks could get caught in traffic and miss the game for all I care
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| Stra-O-Matic. The figures are home made. |
.
How can we fix this? Two solutions come to mind. The first, and best, solution is to let me pick one of the wild card teams. I don't mean pick as in "This team will win by three," I mean pick as in, "I don't give a damn what the Bear's record was, they are IN THE PLAYOFFS!" I wrote Roger Goodell about this idea, and the crickets are still chirping. I guess it got filed in the same folder the Pope placed my "Why not get behind a Norse mythology renaissance?" request.
The second idea is to play my own season. I'm not talking some lame-ass Madden video game for the attention deficit, but rather Strat-O-Matic Football. Strat-O-Matic is a statistic-based board game that accurately and immersively recreates professional football. Players perform according to their statistics, and you perform as the coach, calling the plays, setting up the defenses and such. It's great fun. My buddies and I gamed through the entire 1971 season my senior year in high school (Yeah, I'm a geek.). Unfortunately, I no longer have the time for a 32-team, 16-game season.
In the end I guess I stuck with the Patriots and Broncos, and those other two teams that I don't give a damn about. And my picks? After today we will all be stuck with the Broncos and Seahawks.
See you tomorrow.
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