Why, Yes, I Will Make A Point About Picking The Jets Rather Obnoxiously

Some of you, that is to say my close friends I was watching the first round of the playoffs with, gave me a rather hard time for insisting the Seahawks would get absolutely pasted by the Saints in the first round nine days ago. My reasoning for making this bold, bold proclamation was because Seattle, based on some rather compelling empirical evidence, were terrible this year. Well, as some of you saw I ate my fair share of craw last weekend, when the Seahawks somehow toppled New Orleans, but I suppose I got a measure of vindication yesterday afternoon when Seattle revealed its true High School caliber selves after a loss to the Bears that was about 50 times worse than the score would indicate. My true vindication came about three hours later, however, when those pesky, bizarrely arrogant Jets pulled off an upset win over the dominant New England Patriots that just about no one expected.

Well, except me. Duh.

That's right, while most people had the Patriots not just advancing to this coming Sunday's AFC Championship Game, but to win the whole shabang, I stood strong, and boldly, confidently and fearlessly picked the Jets to topple their division rivals and make a second consecutive AFC Championship Game appearance. If "So yeah, let's go with the Jets, I guess. Why not?" doesn't sound like steadfast belief to you, I'm not sure what does.

Now, I have made it more than abundantly clear that I'm a Giants fan, first and foremost, but the Jets are a peculiar case for me. I wouldn't say I'm a Jets fan, obviously, but the Giants and Jets play once every four years, making a rivalry somewhat hard to maintain. Really, I have no actual distaste for the Gang Green. Frankly, I actually like to see them win and find myself rooting for them more often than not. Granted, if they lose next Sunday it won't kill me, whereas if the Giants were to make the NFC Championship Game and lose I'd be utterly devastated, but it's still nice to see the Jets succeed, which really may have accounted why I picked them as opposed to football acumen or reason. And if they should actually reach the Super Bowl for the first time in 42 years, well, it'll basically seem like one of those wild events that you just never thought you'd live to see.

I suppose my only hope at this point is that the Jets have learned from last year. In his postgame press conference, head coach Rex Ryan said the only difference between this year's AFC Championship Game and last year's is that they plan to win this time. I find that kind of statement a little odd considering they clearly planned on winning last year, too.

You have to give Rex Ryan a little bit of a breather for being unable to think clearly though. Anyone who saw his press conference could notice that his eyes were bloodshot and I wouldn't be surprised to hear that he might have teared up during his speech in the locker room. This was obviously an emotional win for the Jets, who, you get the impression, actually believe it's them against the world. To them, unlike with most teams, this isn't bullshit. They really wanted to come out and prove they were better than New England's comic foil. The Jets were no Falstaff. They're the team to beat. At least in their minds. Anyone who doubts they feel that way should take a look at Bart Scott's on-field interview after the game, which left me convinced Scott would have killed a baby at that moment if it was wearing a Patriots jersey.



Of course, while it was clearly the play of the Jets, both on defense and on offense when necessary, that carried the day, I think what we saw was another case of Bill Belichick's arrogance getting the best of him. I do want to make this much clear. I am not going to criticize Belichick as a coach as far as his greatness and legacy are concerned. Winning three Super Bowls ain't easy, let alone winning three in four years. Belichick's place in NFL history as one of the game's great, innovative coaches in clear. But he does, on occasion, have a tendency to let his own high opinion of himself get in the way.

For no better example of why, simply take a look at the early fourth quarter when New England had an opportunity to hit a 52-yard field goal to tie the game, which, while never a given in this weather, is well within the range of most NFL kickers. Instead, the Pats opted to go for it on 4th and 13, and predictably the drive stalled there. Moments like that one have, on more than one occasion, been Belichick's undoing.

The one that comes most notably to mind, at least to me, was in the waning seconds of Super Bowl XLII, when the Patriots, with some 80 yards to go and a three-point deficit, simply threw deep fade routes four straight times, all of them falling incomplete, in hopes of making a quick strike to win the game with a long, low-percentage touchdown pass. What was so bizarre to me about that particular incident was that, with 29 seconds left and a full assortment of time outs, it would have been perfectly feasible for New England to drive for a game-tying field goal and take its chances in overtime. Not that I minded.

Indeed there were many similarities between this game and that one, with one obvious example being the difficulty with which Tom Brady was unable to handle New York's pass rush. Brady was knocked around and sacked five times by a relentless Jets front four. Even on the plays when the Patriots' offensive line was able to hold the fort, New York's secondary -- and Ryan's decision to drop his linebackers into coverage rather than blitz the pocket -- kept New England's receivers covered and left few openings. This defense not only put Brady on the ground, but also led to him throwing an interception on the first drive, his first in an utterly mind-boggling 340 pass attempts.

Of course, some of this also reminded me of my Giants and their frustratingly difficult loss to the Eagles in the 2008 Divisional round. Both the Giants and Patriots were top seeds, both had defeated all four of the teams that reached the conference title games during the season, and both were felled by a division rival with whom they had split the season series. On an afternoon where things just simply didn't click for those Giants or these Patriots, they made the case of a great team that chose a bad day to have a bad day.

But there are only so many explanations you can make in an attempt to soften the blow. In the end, what's happened has happened and if you're  Jets fan little can dull the excitement and if you're a Pats fan, not even today's totally awesome Sharks-Coyotes Preview can help. But that's life. as a relatively removed observer, I just can't help but be excited about what looks like a tremendous Conference Title Weekend. While the Jets and Steelers should be a great matchup, something about the Packers and Bears facing off with everything on the line and those classic uniforms on the field makes me giddy.

This week has barely started, but I'm ready for it to be over. I wish it were Sunday.

So I Guess I Was Wrong Again

I neglected to mention on Wednesday that January 12 was my first Blogversary for this all-too-heavily trafficked site. It's ok if you forgot to buy me a present. I can't blame you for perhaps getting distracted by what was, perhaps, one of my more depressing entries, but the good news is that since today happens to be my half-birthday -- at 25 1/2 I'm pretty ancient now -- you still have the time to buy me a present. It's the least you can do after all the trouble I've gone to to bore all of you for the past 12 months.

One might say I already got a present yesterday when Cam Newton announced he was entering the NFL Draft (what, he didn't think he'd be eligible at Auburn next year?), but if none of you can find it in your hearts to be so generous, however, I'll manage to be ok because I got a gift of sorts already this week in the form of my tickets to next month's Knicks-76ers game in Philadelphia, a venture that will knock Team No. 38 off the list and get me one step closer to that ultimate goal of way too many stadiums than the average person should see -- though considering the Sixers and Flyers both play at the Wells Fargo Center, I guess I've actually seen this arena already.

Regardless, Feb. 4th in Philadelphia should be an exciting day, if for no other reason than the fact that the Knicks, by some remarkable mystery, continue to to be good and this will mark the third city I've seen them in outside of New York. And considering how mediocre the Sixers have been this season, I've managed to snag rather decent seats at a stiff discount from the face value price.

Go me.

Of course, I've had some difficulty actually seeing the new tickets with all of the egg on my face from last Saturday, and if you're wondering what egg I'm talking about you either didn't read my entry on picks last week (extremely likely) or didn't watch the Seahawks stunning upset win over the Saints last weekend (let's be honest, you just didn't read my blog entry). But the long and short of it was, I think the Seahawks are a terrible football team. Still do, actually. And yet they knocked off the defending-champion New Orleans Saints in a first-round playoff upset that is, well, really pretty damn remarkable.

How remarkable?

Well, suffice it to say, and I know Giants fans will consider this blasphemy, trust me, I am one of them after all, but I might go so far as to say this might be the biggest postseason upset of the last decade if not ever. Yes, I know the Giants were up against what was probably the greatest football team I ever saw in Super Bowl XLII, and pulled out a dramatic victory if there ever was one, but let's remember a few things. For one, the Giants were pretty damn good that season. They were 10-6 that season, which most years is at the very least decent enough to get you into the postseason if not a respectable showing. In addition New York had had some dominant performances that season and at one point won six games in a row, which is nearly as many as Seattle won the entire regular season. Lastly, it is hard to ignore that the Giants nearly beat the Patriots in the final week of the regular season.

While the Seahawks were home and the Saints were flying across the country and were battling injuries, there was never an indication that Seattle with its 28th-ranked offense was capable of outscoring one of the top offenses in the League. And that's because, and last Saturday aside, I will stand by this, the Seattle Seahawks are a terrible football team. Seriously. They are terrible.

How terrible are we talking? Well, according the editor of FiveThirtyEight.com and general statistics wiz Nate Silver, the Seahawks are the worst NFL team to ever make the postseason in a non-strike year, and might possibly be the second worst playoff team in the history of professional sports. God bless the 1952-53 Baltimore Bullets. To put an even finer point on it -- possibly the finest point -- one analysis in Silver's article showed these Seahawks would be just three-point favorites over the 2008 Detroit Lions. And if you need any refresher on that team, they were pretty horrendous.

Of course, given all that, I'm sure they're going to whoop the Bears in Chicago this weekend -- they beat them there once already -- just to make me look like a fool again, though if you go back and look, I did, in fact, say the Seahawks would win against New Orleans last week. The details beneath the heading are just fine print. You don't need to read those.

Besides, y'all can give me credit for correctly tabbing the other three games last weekend, including wins by two six-seeds, right? Or at least I can distract you with this excellent representation of Marshawn Lynch's game-sealing touchdown run, which just might be the greatest in NFL postseason history.



In any event, you're not here to read my rambles. You're here to see some picks. Picks that will probably be wrong. Heaven forbid I keep you from that. So here we go.

NFC
(1) Atlanta over (6) Green Bay
Does anyone else think it's almost unfair that these two teams have to face each other while the Bears and Seahawks try not to cross swords in the powder puff bowl? Probably. I really won't be surprised if either team wins this game, but the Falcons and Matty Ice are nearly unbeatable at the Georgia Dome so I'll give them the nod. Either way, I expect whomever takes this one to be representing the NFC in Dallas next month.

(2) Chicago over (4) Seattle
This just has disaster written all over it, doesn't it? I could feel like I'm falling into the trap on this one by relying on the truth that the Seahawks are not good at football. After all, who else could inspire multiple Mario Bros.-themed Youtube mashups? But come on. I'm not stupid. The Bears may be one of the weaker No. 2 seeds we've seen in a while, but they're better than Seattle. Go ahead. Prove me wrong again.

AFC

(6) NY Jets over (1) New England
Yeah, I know, this one is ballsy. But have you seen today's New York Post? Really. Have you seen it? These people have outdone themselves in a way I never thought possible. And if this brilliant piece of, yes, art, doesn't tell you that the force is, in fact, with the Jets, then you either don't have faith in upsets or haven't noticed how amazingly close this back page comes to duplicating all three Star Wars special edition movie posters while taking in elements from nearly each film. Seriously. Somehow this has topped both Hothlanta, and the latest Death Star trench run. Somehow this has actually made me almost forget about Antonio Cromartie's all-too-honest assessment of Tom Brady, or Wes Welker's rather clever press conference from earlier this week. So yeah, let's go with the Jets, I guess. Why not?

(2) Pittsburgh over (5) Baltimore
It's kind of remarkable that with two great teams facing off who also happen to hate each other, no one really seems to have noticed that this game is being played. Sure Sportscenter gives it five or so minutes every hour, but come on. This is probably the best matchup of the weekend and it's almost as if it isn't happening. Well, maybe that's an exagerration, but it is happening, and I really have no idea who'll win, but I'm still bitter at Baltimore for some football game that happened like a decade ago, so... I'll go with the Stillers.

I bet five people at most got through that whole screed. No matter. The fewer of you that know I was wrong on Monday morning the better. Happy football everyone.

NFL Picks Week Fourteen: In Which I Talk About John Lennon

Unless you decided to spend your free time under a rock yesterday, you probably heard that it was the 30th anniversary of John Lennon being shot to death outside the Dakota apartment building in New York City by an awfully disturbed individual named Mark David Chapman. Now, I'm pretty quick to point out that my favorite band of all time is The Beatles, without a doubt, and while I actually enjoy George Harrison's solo work the best of the Fab Four, Lennon's individual oeuvre is still fantastic, and his musical genius is clearly evident throughout The Beatles' musical arc.

I try not to be a sap on too regular a basis, but I spent most of yesterday listening to Lennon's later work -- Imagine, Double Fantasy, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band -- on a loop for most of the afternoon because, well, if you watched ESPN for four minutes at any given time yesterday you were reminded that Lennon's death was first announced to the world by Howard Cosell during a Patriots-Dolphins game on Monday Night Football. ESPN put on a fairly interesting piece, which, bizarrely, didn't mention that New England's kicker that night, who was preparing for a game-winning kick as the news was announced, was the only Englishman in the game at the time. A written version of the story takes a much larger focus on Smith.

The most interesting thing for me about this entire thing is that the piece shows behind the scenes footage of Cosell debating with Frank Gifford on whether or not to reveal the news. In retrospect, I have difficulty finding it appropriate to announce the murder of a cultural icon during the midst of a football game, to say nothing of the bombastic tone of Cosell's voice at all times, but it's a fascinating moment both because of the news being announced and because of the remarkable contrast with today's media circuit. With the immediacy of 24-Hour News channels, the internet and, maybe most importantly, twitter, that kind of information would never be kept under wraps before falling in the lap of a sports announcer, regardless of how famous he is.

The contrast is almost staggering, particularly for someone who works in sports media and gets most of his advance warning at the trading deadline by following various reporters in the twittersphere. It's also interesting to note that Cosell and Lennon, despite coming from dramatically different ends of the social spectrum, were apparently quite good friends following an interview Lennon did while at a Rams game on Monday Night Football in 1974.



I bring this all up because, as someone who makes his bread in sports media, I find both the changes in media over the last 30 years and the intersection of sports and pop culture to be particularly interesting. And I also think it's interesting to note because in all likelihood, the combination of one major cultural pillar (Cosell) and a timeless cultural icon (Lennon) intersecting in such a dramatic way in such a dramatic moment is almost certain never to happen again.

I'd be absolutely astonished if it happened, say, this weekend. And speaking of which, let's do this whole "picks" thing.

Last week: 7-8-1
Season: 95-88-10

Indianapolis (-6) over TENNESSEE
NY Giants (-3) over MINNESOTA
Cleveland (+1) over BUFFALO
Green Bay (-7) over DETROIT
PITTSBURGH (-9) over Cincinnati
Tampa Bay (-3) over WASHINGTON
Atlanta (-8) over CAROLINA
Oakland (+5) over JACKSONVILLE
NEW ORLEANS (-10) over St. Louis
Seattle (+6) over SAN FRANCISCO
New England (-3) over CHICAGO
NY JETS (-6) over Miami
ARIZONA (+6) over Denver
SAN DIEGO (-7) over Kansas City
DALLAS (+4) over Philadelphia
Baltimore (-3) over HOUSTON

And that's all for this week. Enjoy your weekends.

1995 NFL Mail Bag: The New England Patriots

Some of you might remember a few posts ago when I mentioned my upcoming plan to write letters to every NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB team as well as Dick Cheney's uncanny marksmanship. Well, in addition to Cheney not being the only older politician to make us proud lately, you might also recall that this project was inspired by a similar letter campaign I made when I was nine years old to every NFL team.

Well last week I made a trip home to New Jersey where I did the all too exciting activity of filing my tax return. In addition to finding that I received half as much in my refund as expected -- to say nothing of what I owe New Jersey and New York -- I also uncovered a box with all the mail I received as a nine-year-old. Fifteen years later it's time to uncover it all and so every Friday, you can count on me showing you just how generous -- or cheap -- professional football teams were a decade and a half ago.

First up: The New England Patriots.

I'm going with the Pats first because after sending out my deluge of mail, New England was the first to actually respond. This became particularly memorable when my father picked me up from Sunday School at Temple Sinai in Summit, New Jersey, handing over the mail. In my haste to open it on the ride home I almost didn't notice when we were blindsided by a pregnant woman near the Short Hills train station.

Fun times.

Well, in case you're wondering, the Patriots sent me a copy of their "Sideline Report" Newsletter, as well as a handsome 1994 New England Patriots Media Guide. As a bonus the media guide features this hilarious older photo of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who has gone from bumbling maniac to championship steward in just a short 15 years since I got my mail.

The rest of the media guide is fairly unexciting. If you've worked as a sportswriter before you know media guides are a treasure trove of useful information to beef up your stories, such as Drew Bledsoe's fourth-quarter touchdown passes against the Arizona Cardinals, to name one. Do these have any practical application? No. But we make you think they do.

The real fun, however, came from The Sideline Report, which featured several trips down memory lane in addition to one retrospectively ridiculous story after another. My personal favorite, aside from the Patriots' 35th Anniversary two-page spread (this year they celebrated 50), and the obligatory Sam Adams advertisement in the back (it is Boston after all) is probably this profile on Vincent Brown's physique, deemed by Muscle and Fitness Magazine to be the best in the NFL. Now looking at this photo, he is, indeed, in phenomenal shape. And knowing how clean weight training regimens were in the 1990s, I'm sure his physique, which the article calls "Lou Ferrigno-like", came about entirely naturally. At 6'2" 245 lbs and free of body fat, the article goes on to say, "Brown is proof positive that the body builders' credo can help professional athletes reach their full potential."

Body builders indeed.

Aside from the story on Brown, who has since coached in the NFL, the rest of the magazine featured several other gems. One that caught my eye was on Marty Moore, whom the Patriots selected with the last overall pick in the 1994 NFL Draft, a slot generally known as "Mr. Irrelevant". Moore became the first Mr. Irrelevant to play in a Super Bowl in 1996 and as the story boasts he is "Irrelevant No Moore". And of course we all remember Marty Moore, don't we?

What might really be the best bit in the magazine, aside from the totally sweet pullout Ben Coates poster, is an ad for the now defunct sportswear company Apex featuring Patriots coach Bill Parcells with the tag line, "You Can't Fake Patriotism". Don't get me wrong, I love Bill Parcells for leading the Giants to two Super Bowl titles, and his place as one of the greatest coaches in modern times is more than assured. But his penchant for jumping from one organization to another makes this more than a little ironic, no? Given the statement at the bottom of the ad, "You Can't Fake This", well, perhaps Apex should have tabbed a different spokesperson. Maybe they'd still be in business if they did.

That all more or less sums up the excitement of receiving mail from the New England Patriots in 1995. I find this all pretty remarkable since the franchise's fortunes have changed so dramatically since. At the time they had endured decades of struggle with one flukey Super Bowl appearance to their credit.

Now the Pats have five more Super Bowl appearances to their credit, three championships, and arguably one of the greatest teams ever assembled. Bizarre how this can change so quickly. If the Patriots felt like giving some of that winning touch to the U.S. hockey team today for its showdown with Finland in the semifinals, well, that would be nice. Finland is no cakewalk, but I still like the U.S.'s chances at gritting out a spot in Sunday's Gold Medal Game, where I suspect they'll be rematched with Canada.

Gulp.

Of course, I will continue to think about Olympic hockey primarily for the next few days because the snow is making it difficult to think of anything other than winter sports, though it is providing some surprising benefits. As well, the only other sports team that could distract me is the Mets, who are already apparently suffering from some hilarious injuries.

I'd rather think about something else for a little while. Olympic hockey is going to do the trick.