Momentum

When I sat down to write my latest entry this morning I was basking in the warm glow another late season swoon from the gun toting-wrangler wearing-gray beard. This time at the hands of Jay-eff George Cutler and that potent Bears offense. I was planning on killing Brett's selfishness and how it is killing the 3rd seeded Vikings but then I listened to the post game analysis.

These jokers spend more time covering up bad decisions than Bill Clinton's press secretary.  "The Vikings may have lost but Brett Favre is showing that he is in mid-season form and ready for a big playoff push." Really? He didn't score enough for his team to win. I mean that IS still how we determine a winner and a loser, right? The team that scores more wins. Am I right? Anyone, anyone, Bueller. And these rocket scientists were the same core group that said, "The Colts pulled their starters with a 15-10 lead, which will help to position the team for a deep run in the playoffs." Oh, I see. What they are trying to tell us is losing late in the season is a necessary step in a championship season. Right, got it....WRONG!

"You play to win the game."

Football is the most precise team sport in the world, sorry curling fans. Dialing it in does not better prepare your team for the playoffs and neither do late season losses that cost you first round byes.

I was critical when Belicheat waved the white flag by pulling Tom Bundchen and the Boys with over five minutes to go (here) earlier this season and I fully supported Mike Tomlin's decision to play Big Ben in the meaningless regular season final last season where he received, you guessed it, another concussion. Football is a game that forces you to go all out all the time because the teams that win the Super Bowl are ALWAYS the teams that are completely in-sync.

Momentum is one of the most over used words in sports. There is an ebb and flow to all sports that centers on confidence and precision. In hockey "momentum" comes in the form of a short quirky goal tender that can do splits while wearing 40-lbs. of equipment. The old saying in baseball is that momentum is only as good as tomorrows starting pitcher. And Basketball is basically a 40-minute phone-it-in-a-thon leading up to the final eight minute kick start where the ebb and flow of the game is entirely predicated on the referee's standing with his bookie (here).

Football is different. In no other sport do you have to rely on eleven individuals to work in unison, in three-phases, for 60 minutes. Any one of those phases falters and it can cost you a championship.

The only time that the Indy Colts have won the Super Bowl they had to play their way into the playoffs and into the Wild Card round. Every time they have had a bye they have lost. Oh, and please don't tell me that the Colts won Super Bowl V, I know they did but that was the Baltimore Colts they did so with a rookie idiot kicker and two guys from the Cowboys were named MVP, they were an entirely different team.

Peyton is all about timing and you don't help your timing by holding a clipboard.

In fact this decade has only seen one #1 seeded team win a Super Bowl, 2003 Patriots. That team won the final 11 games leading to the last game of the season and instead of pulling the starters Belicheat sent out the first stringers to dismantle the Bills 31-0 in a totally meaningless game.

More to the point of the nine teams that have won the Super Bowl this decade eight of them did so while playing hard through the final five games of the season. The only team that mailed one in was the Tampa Bay Bucs in 2002, where they started Rob Johnson. Of course that team won the Super Bowl because of a stifling defense. I mean I could have started at Quarterback and they still would have won.

Jim Caldwell really didn't learn anything from Tony Dungy's mistakes, in fact I think that by definition he is insane. You know the whole repeated behavior and expecting different results thing. The Colts are destined to lose early and the Vikings are just bad.

There is a silver lining for those teams however, because this year they play the Pro Bowl the week before the Super Bowl. So it's not like media darlings Brett and Payton won't have an opportunity to settle the on going raging debate over "Greatest Quarterback" in history (Regular Season Category) on the field...it's just going to take place in a meaningless game.

Then we can get on to the trivial stuff like who's the best team in football.