Originally Published April 19, 2011
By J.D. Cook

1

The water was calm, the sky was grayish white, and Paul was tired. Weather like this always made him groggy. He slouched down on the bench of the Staten Island Ferry with exhaustion. The benches were surprisingly comfortable, despite being bright green and carrying a wood panel design in the middle of them. As Paul felt his head drop to sleep he noticed only one thing. He could no longer see anything out on the water. Other ships, the skyline, and even the water in the distance had been swallowed by the raining mist of the ugly day.

2

James arrived at the Staten Island Ferry quickly. He flashed his badge without a second thought and jumped aboard the boat. It had crashed in a horrible catastrophe and spectacle. Many people driving down the nearby road, or parked for the nearby Staten Island Yankees game had been shocked when they heard the screech of metal on concrete and the screams of people trying to flee as the boat ran ashore at high speed. Many waiting for taxis had been killed instantly, and still others injured. James was reminded instantly of 9-11, and couldn’t help but be led to think this was terrorism.

“What’s the situation, McKay?”

“We…don’t know,” replied Officer McKay with some hesitation.

“What do you mean? The first responders have been on the scene for nearly an hour! Have you done nothing the entire time?” James couldn’t keep the anger out of his voice.

“No sir, it’s not that at all. It’s just, well…”

“WELL WHAT?!”

“No bodies on board,” mumbled McKay.

“Say that again?”

“No body or bodies are aboard. It is a ghost ship.” James surveyed the boat’s main deck. All of the benches seemed clear at a glance, nobody littered the stairways, and no one was calling out in pain. James’ jacket blew in an eerie wind that seemed to appear out of nowhere, the drizzling rain turned into a downpour suddenly as the grey skies opened up their wrath upon mankind.


3

Paul awoke to the sound of his IPOD blasting the funeral hymm, “Dies Iries”. He was a fan of classical orchestra music, and especially of Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. Paul loved how the musical theme of love changed through the song. It went from sweet to twisted as the story became more bizarre and interesting. Berlioz had written the symphony for a girl, and even got her, only to discover that they didn’t love each other at all. A sad end to a sad symphony. Berlioz had written Symphonie Fantastique as a program story of unrequited love, and a descent into a mad opium filled dream where the protagonist found himself being marched to the gallows to descend into the final musical movement, “The Dream of the Witches
Sabbath” It was here that “Dies Iries” played. It was an old Gregorian funeral hymm, but most people knew it as the opening of the Stanley Kubrick film, The Shinning.


Paul pulled his head phones out of his ears expecting for the familiar voice to announce that they were preparing to dock over the loudspeakers. After waiting for a moment he decided to move to the front of the Ferry so as to get off quicker. Paul grabbed his small lap top bag and threw it over his shoulder as he moved to the stairs and descended them. As he reached the last step he found a strange sight. The back of the ferry was shrouded in misty grey fog. It reached through the open doors and into the first couple of rows of seats. Outside the windows the grey clouds of the ugly day seemed to press upon the glass. Paul raised an eyebrow and put his hood up over his head thinking nothing of it. Then he heard something. A sound issued from within the grey mist. It shook him to his core. It was a woman’s scream. Paul moved to investigate without a second thought. His dad was a cop and courage came easy to him as a result of a good moral upbringing.


“WAIT!” shouted someone from behind him. “It’s a trap!”

Paul stopped and wheeled around on his right foot. A typical Staten Island type of girl sat crouched behind a nearby bench. Her hair was overdone; she wore too much make-up and could fit right in to the cast of the atrocious and culturally depleting television show Jersey Shore.

“What do you mean?” asked Paul, ignoring his feelings on the typical Staten Island girl.

“Some other people were drawn in a few minutes ago. Then they screamed and then they didn’t return.” The girl was panicking and out of breath.

Paul turned back towards the scream. “I have to go in, I’ll be right back,” he declared, unaffected by the girl’s warning. He burst ahead without a second thought.

“That’s what they said!” was the last thing Paul heard as he entered the cloud of grey.


Once inside it seemed like sound was muffled, but he had no idea how this was possible. He could barely make out anything in front of him as he slowed his pace down and walked on slowly. Then something appeared on the ground. It was a fleshy blur at first, but then he realized it was an arm. The rest of their body came into view as he got closer. It was an old Indian man.


He lay on the floor as if he had been crawling towards where Paul now stood. Paul crouched down and gently laid a hand on his shoulder. To Paul’s fright the man awoke with a sudden shock. He spoke in an Indian dialect frantically. Paul didn’t know the slightest bit of this language. His dad had learned a couple of languages for work, but Paul had never invested the time. The Indian man slowed his speech and closed his eyes to concentrate.


“We…” the man paused; English certainly wasn’t his first language. “..must go now!”

As he completed this sentence, the Indian man was pulled away violently. He grabbed onto Paul’s pant leg dragging him as well. The man screamed in terror and Paul tried to stop himself by gaining friction on the wet orange floor. It failed quickly and by he realized where they were being dragged to…off of the ferry. Paul knew of one shot to stop himself. He had to grab onto the doorway as they passed through it. His adrenaline kicked in with force as all of his thoughts now scrambled from his brain.
The doorway came into sight as thunder crashed somewhere in the distance. Paul put his arms out and grabbed the metal doorway with all his might. For a second it felt like he would be ripped in two and then the Indian man was gone, and he was left with the man’s last horrified expression as he was pulled into the air instead of plummeting into the Hudson.


Paul didn’t waste a moment wondering what that meant. He got to his feet and bolted back towards the Staten Island girl with the full intention of kissing her. Levity was all he could manage to keep himself from screaming at this moment. He felt something following him, and he knew it was disappointed when he leapt out of the grey cloud over one of the green wood benches. He rested for a moment feeling pain in his back from the hard landing. From under the bench, he looked towards the grey mist he had just escaped and expected something to burst out after him, but nothing did.


4

James had just finished surveying the entire boat with a couple of the other officers. No one was on board, alive or dead, they had all vanished. The only trace of people that had been found was some bags and other merchandise that they had been carrying, but the people themselves were all missing. McKay walked up to James and handed him a coffee that gave off steam in the cold damp air.


“Any ideas yet?” asked McKay expecting the wily vet to sum up the crime in a Sherlock Holmes fashion.

“None- this is damn peculiar. Someone had to set the ship to ramming speed. Someone had to leave all of this stuff behind. Someone needed to be operating this Ferry.” McKay bent down and picked up a lap top bag from the ground. He lifted it without a second thought. “That’s evidence ki…” James mouth fell open.

“What is it, sir?”

“Let me see that!” James took the bag and quickly rifled through it. There were a large number of things Paul would never leave behind. His comic books, for instance. Paul always seemed to have them on hand, since he got a job in a comic store months ago. Then there was his lap top, and his college notebook, but his cell phone was missing. James quickly removed his Blackberry from its case and speed dialed him. The sound of Paul’s ringtone surprised both officers. It came from directly behind them. It was issuing from inside the elevator. James pressed the call button on the elevator, but it did not respond.

“Get me some fireman to wedge these doors open!” McKay was off in a flash, recognizing the ringtone as that of Jame’s son.


5

Paul got to his feet and found the Staten Island girl still huddled a few rows back. He jogged to her, afraid to walk. “Where is everyone else? What is going on?” Paul shouted as his adrenaline wore off and fear overcame him.

“I don’t know, by the time I noticed anything was wrong, mostly everyone was gone,” replied the girl, much calmer than Paul.

“How did you not notice people VANISHING?” yelled Paul, almost accusing the girl of something.

“I had my headphones on. I wasn’t even paying attention until that Indian man shook me and asked me if I heard the screaming.”


Paul regained his composure a bit as he felt guilty for the tone he had taken with the girl. “We should move to the front of the boat, away from this misting fog,” she added.

“Agreed,” panted Paul standing up next to her. Clearly, her bleach blond hair and skimpy clothing betrayed an iron core within her. Paul would remember that the next time he met a girl of her type. The two moved past the snack bar, glancing around quickly for anyone. The girl went into the ladie’s room but found not a single soul. Then they both received a shock. As they looked back towards where they had been huddled a minute ago, they found it engulfed by the grey cloud of mist.

“It’s moving and soon it will encompass the entire ferry!”

“What do we do?” asked the girl as her iron core melted a bit.

“Wait and keep moving backwards and upwards,” replied Paul.


“You two down there!” a voice echoed through the ship. It was a gruff male voice – a man most definitely not from New York originally. “Get in the elevator! I will cut the power from the bridge! I don’t know what’s happening, but it should be safe in there, but you need to move quickly because that thing is moving towards you! I can’t hear you, so don’t bother replying and just get a move on!”

The two people looked at each other and bolted for the elevator, but to their dismay the cloud had already taken it at this level. Neither was brave enough to dive into it and wait for the elevator. “Next level! Get to the next level!” called the voice over the loudspeaker.


The pair ran to the front of the boat and turned into the stairwell. Paul stopped for a moment and noticed that the silver sliding doors at the front of the ship where he usually waited for the docking ramp to descend were closed shut, but then, as if on cue, one of them began to slide open. Nothing was behind it, and the boat didn’t seem to be in rocky waters. It was being opened by something. The cloud seemed to seep in towards him, but he didn’t waste another second as he shot up the steps after the girl. She was stopped in front of more of the cloud on the second level. It again had beaten them to the elevator.

“The hurricane deck! It’s our only hope!”

“Are you crazy? It will be filled with this!” replied the girl as Paul wasted no time ascending to the next level. She followed, and to both of their surprise it wasn’t present here. They jogged to the elevator and hit the call button. It responded, but it was obviously on another level of the ferry. Paul looked out into the grey white mist that surrounded the ferry, but it was a useless gesture as nothing could be seen.

“LOOK!” shouted the girl. The door to the outside sitting area of the ship where the tourists loved to stand and snap pictures of the Statue of Liberty shot open hard. In flowed the white grey mist and the elevator had still not arrived. As if on cue, the other doors around the deck shot open. It would have them in seconds. The girl grabbed Paul instinctively and he squeezed her as if she had been his lover for some time. The two leaned against the elevator doors and closed their eyes. It was almost on them. It seemed to inch towards them as if it was alive. Paul opened his eyes and could swear he detected a mist like hand reaching for him out of the haze when the elevator doors opened and they both fell in to the elevator hard. The girl jumped up and slammed on the door closed button multiple times. It seemed to wait stubbornly as if it wanted them to be enveloped. The mist-like hand seemed to be turning the corner into the elevator. It was just about to Paul’s face when the door closed and cut it off.


Both Paul and the girl breathed an immense sigh of relief. They cuddled as if they had just engaged in a marathon of romantic movies. The lights of the elevator went out, and both of them barely noticed. “Thank God for whoever was on the loudspeaker,” said the girl. They both let go of each other as if they suddenly realized they were both complete and utter strangers.

“I’m Paul.”

“Carissa,” replied the girl after Paul cut the oddness for both of them by introducing himself. Without thinking Paul leaned in for a kiss, but Carissa withdrew.

“I’m engaged,” she replied holding up a huge diamond ring. The awkward silence that followed was like a turtle on its back.

“It’s not a big deal,” laughed Carissa.

“Sorry,” replied Paul with a chuckle. “Damn, I lost my bag!”

“I’m sorry, I think I broke the strap when we hugged each other.”

“It’s no problem; I’m sure my dad will find it and realize where we are. He’s a cop.”


6

James stood by the elevator doors as he continued to call his son. The phone continued to ring without an answer. His stomach turned around as if it was a washing machine on spin cycle. The fireman stuck crowbars and axes into the doors. With one giant heave, the doors would be open. James and McKay stood awaiting the worst. Jame’s imagination got the best of him as he imagined the badly mangled and mutilated body of his son, but he quickly pushed these thoughts away.


“Hey James, want to hear a joke?” asked McKay seeking to break the tension.

James needed to escape his own mind for a second. He knew it was impossible, but the only thing he could do was try. “Go ahead.” McKay was a good kid, and he didn’t know how to handle the situation himself. Sometimes all you could do was try to laugh.

“This guy I know is in his front yard the other day, when this really hot blonde neighbor comes out and goes for the mail.” McKay stopped to remember the rest. “So she looks inside the mailbox and then slams it shut before going back inside her house.”

James had heard this before but he wouldn’t tell McKay and he couldn’t even focus on the joke anyway.

“A little later the blonde does it again, this time she gets angrier before heading back inside. Finally a bit later the guy is outside again and sees the girl do this yet again, but this time he asks, ‘Waiting for a package?’ to which the blonde replies, “No, my computer keeps saying, you’ve got mail!’”

No one laughed as the firefighters gave their heave and threw the elevator doors wide open. Out of it burst a grayish white mist that covered the area for a second before it started to dissipate. Everyone waited in silence for the last traces of it to fade so that they could get a good view of the elevator. Except when it finally everyone was surprised to find nothing within, nothing except Paul’s cell phone which displayed the ten missed calls from his father. James burst out with a scream of frustration tossing his own cell phone into the wall. He fell to his knees and pounded on the ground as McKay leaned into the elevator and surveyed the space. The firefighters went back off to help with the injured off the Ferry.


7

Paul and Carissa sat in the dark happily. They had been there for an undeterminable amount of time making what idle chit chat they could. Suddenly the elevator seemed to shake slightly. Than a little more so; Carissa and Paul drew close to each other again.

“Have we crashed?”

“I think it would have been more violent if we did,” replied Paul hoping the elevator cable held tight. He knew the possibility of it snapping was slim and that the fall three floors down would probably not be fatal, but he had a big imagination. From outside the elevator a sound came. At first it was indescribable. Then it took the shape of words as light began to issue through the crack of the elevator doors. Paul looked at Carissa’s eyes and found them a milky white. He slapped her face, lightly at first, but she didn’t respond.


Then all Paul could do was listen to the words that were now deafening, and when he comprehended them as, “I am always watching you. The time has come for me to take you away with me.”

~

Trademarked by digitaltrends.com

If you are anything like me, then you believe Dead Space, the survival horror hit from 2007, is a modern classic of gaming. It’s plot is simple – a deep space mining vessel has gone dark and a small team is sent to investigate the communication breakdown only to find horrifying creatures have dispatched the crew and your only real goal is to survive the ordeal. The game play is nearly perfect, and the setting creates a tense fearful atmosphere that is heightened by the amount of startling moments in the game. So the question on everyone’s mind now must be – how could such a successful game be followed up?

Dead Space 2’s plot is nearly as simple as that of the first. You return to action as the protagonist Isaac Clarke. Only instead of having to survive on a space ship you now have to survive on a space station, contend with dementia acquired during the first game, face the military madman trying to kill you, deal with other survivors, and attempt to destroy an alien artifact (ok, so maybe the plot got a little more complex). Yet it really is not that hard to follow I am simply adding dramatic effect. But the simplicity of the plot is a positive because they do not need to wrap an overly complex plot around the game play that was already close to perfection in the original.

The only problems with Dead Space 2 are small. The first is that the marketing campaign did a great job pointing out that this game would disturb mothers, but the game itself disturbed me just a bit. There is a section that takes place within a day care, and they did an overwhelmingly good job bringing the setting to life. So good, in fact, that I couldn’t help but think of the small children I know and shiver when a small baby explodes on its mother. I get it – this is supposed to be shocking! But why? It just seemed like they could have done something more interesting and altogether more tasteful then have an intensely cool protagonist running around shooting morphed babies and children.

On the note of that intensely cool protagonist, I should bring up the fact that the character has dialogue in Dead Space 2, as opposed to the original in which he didn’t utter a word. Many fans were worried this would detract from the fearful element in the game, but if anything it adds to it. As already mentioned the plot grows because of this and hearing him shout curses when you stomp open creates saves me the trouble of doing it out loud like I used to.

Moving back to problems with the game, I come to one thing that did become a negative in Dead Space 2. In the original game the characters deaths were overly extreme and shocking. In Dead Space 2 they are kind of boring. One or two of them is rather intense but the majority of them involve your character splitting into three sections, and what makes this worse is that you cannot skip the death animations. So if you get stuck at a particular section of the game get ready to see Isaac Clarke disemboweled over and over and over again. After the first time it’s just boring and frustrating to watch, and only two of them seemed as shocking as the first games.

Honestly, other than that, I cannot find many problems with this game. Well with the exception of the final boss battle which was a let down in the first game  as well as this game. The online mode adds an fun element to the experience as you fight with online enemies as opposed to the computer. The game may not be quite as scary as the first but it certainly startles you more, and there are some very creepy sections of this game. It would have tickled my fancy if the Zero Gravity sections of the game were a bit longer but, oh well.

This game does not improve a whole lot on the first one but it does not ruin anything either. I’d recommend it if you are already a fan, or want to experience the Dead Space universe for the first time.

~
J. D. Cook

Aaron Rodgers has led his team to the ultimate championship with a victory in Super Bowl XLV. He was named the game’s Most Valuable Player and his four-game performance in this year’s postseason is already being touted as the “best ever”.

You can expect the rush towards his bandwagon to be faster than Michael Vick (who, by the way was selected over Rodgers as the third and final NFC Pro Bowl quarterback). We here at Big Blue Bullfrog are not above such hypocracy, as we failed to even mention Rodgers in our recent article about NFL quarterbacks. Fire and Ice.

The fact that Rodgers was still vastly underrated into his third season as a starter, even though he became the only player in history to throw for over 4,000 yards in each of his first two seasons as a starter, is just the latest in this amazing story of perserverance and patience.

Like most NFL stars, Rodgers was a standout in high school, breaking many records along the way. But because he was only 5’10” (he would eventually grow to 6’2″), he received no recruiting attention from big name colleges, with his best offer being a tryout as a “walk-on” at the University of Illinois. Knowing that, best case scenario, this would only lead to a slot as third or fourth string backup, Rodgers decided instead to attend the local Butte Community College in Oroville, California. He started immediately in his freshman season and threw for 28 touchdowns while leading Butte to a #2 divisional national ranking.

Soon Rodgers was discovered by a coach from the University of California, who visited the Butte campus to recruit another player but was impressed by Rodgers instead. Due to his high grade point average and SAT scores, Rodgers was able to transfer immediately to the prestigious PAC 10 school.

He was named the starting quarterback in the fifth game of his first (sophomore) season at Cal in 2003. Despite only playing about half of the season, he tied the school season record for 300-yard games with five. As a junior in 2004, Rodgers led Cal, who usually finishes in the middle to bottom of the PAC 10, to a 10–1 record and the verge of a national championship, with their only loss coming to #1 (and eventual national champion) USC 23-17 in a last second nail-biter. In that crucial game, Rodgers tied an NCAA record with 23 consecutive passes completed in a single game.

Foregoing his senior season, Rodgers entered the NFL draft in 2005 and was expected to be selected early, possibly even number one overall. That pick was owned by the San Francisco 49ers, the team for which Rodgers had grown up rooting. However, the 49ers decided to pass on Rodgers in lieu of another quarterback, Alex Smith. So then Rodgers waited. And waited, And waited.

22 more teams made selections, and all 22 passed on Rodgers to draft someone else. During the coverage of the draft, ESPN had a constant camera of Rodgers to gauge his reaction once he was chosen. Instead it caught his poise as he was constantly passed up. This poise was partially the reason that the Green Bay Packers decided to take him when Rodgers was still available for their 24th pick, despit the fact that they had an all-time great, Brett Favre at that position.

2005 was Favre’s 14th season with the Packers and he had never suffered a losing season in any of the previous 13. But that year, with Rodgers on the bench as a rookie backup, Favre and the Packers suffered their worst year ever with a record of 4-12 and a last place finish. There was wide speculation that Favre was finished and would retire after the season, especially when head coach Mike Sherman was fired. New coach Mike McCarthy immediately traded wide receiver Javon Walker, the Packer’s top receiver, to the Denver Broncos. This symbolized a move towards youth and rebuilding and Rodgers got ready to step in as the team’s starter.

But in April, after several months of uncertainty, Favre annouced that he would return for the 2006 season. That season started as bad as the previous one ended, with an embarissing 26-0 loss at home to the rival Chicago Bears and an eventual 1-4 record to start the season. For the first time in his career, some fans were openly calling for Favre, who had started every game since 1992, to be benched in favor of Rodgers. However, the Packers did turn it around and finished the season strong, closing out with a big victory against those same Bears in Chicago. Following that game, Favre gave an emotional, tear-filled interview that most took as a sign that he had already decided to finally hang it up. Rodgers again got ready to step in as the team’s starter.

But Favre again surprised fans and pundits by announcing he would return for the 2007 season. There were rumours that the Packers were in negotiatons with the Oakland Raiders to trade Rodgers for wide receiver Randy Moss, but these rumours ended when Moss was traded to New England, where he would set an all-time record for receiving touchdowns that season.

Favre and the Packers had an excellent year in 2007, finishing 13-3 and advancing all the way to the NFC Championship Game. In that game at Lambeau Field, one of the coldest games ever, the Packers battled the New York Giants in a classic overtime game, that the Giants won in overtime following an interception by Favre. Soon after, a poet wrote “Iron Man’s Last Stand” as a tribute to Favre in what was surely his very last game, as that poet “knew” just like everyone else, that Favre would finally retire following that galliant season. Favre officially confirmed this on March 8, 2008, when he publically announced his retirement. The NFL decided to honor Favre by putting him on the cover (in his Green Bay uniform) of the Madden 2009 video game and Rodgers again got ready to step in as the team’s starter.

Although he had learned much by being the backup to a legend, in those three years he only attempted 59 passes with one touchdown and one interception. So there was still much doubt as to how well Rodgers would perform week in and week out.

In mid July, just weeks before training camp, Favre announced that he wanted to come back. He reported to Packers camp in early August, but Green Bay, to their credit wanted to solidify their committment to Aaron Rodgers, so they traded their legendary quarterback to the New York Jets. As he headed into his first start as a professional, Rodgers now not only carried the burden of replacing an “irreplaceable” legend but also the added pressure of his team “gambling” on him in lieu of another season with that legend.

The Packers started strong in 2008, with a 2-0 record but finished weak, losing 5 of their last 6 with the lone victory coming against the winless Detroit Lions. Rodgers had a solid season, throwing for 4,038 yards with 28 touchdowns and 13 interceptions, and a 63% completion percentage.

2009 was a bit better for both Rodgers and the team. The quarterback threw for 4,434 yards with 30 touchdowns and only 7 interceptions and a 64% completion percentage. The Packers improved to 11-5 and made the playoffs as a wildcard team, finishing second their division. However, the team that won the division, the Minnesota Vikings, did so with their “new” quarterback, Brett Favre, who had retired after just one season with the Jets, but again made a late decision to return, this time as a Viking. Favre defeated his old team twice, giving his new team the divisional crown, and causing some lingering doubts about Aaron Rodgers.

For this season, Rodgers and the Packers came in with high hopes as did Favre and the Vikings. However, both teams struggled a bit early in the season and by the time they met the for first time, at Lambeau Field on October 24, 2010, it was a must-win for both teams. This exciting, back-and-forth game came down to the last minute with Green Bay holding on for a 28-24 victory, and Aaron Rodgers finally getting a win against his former mentor. When they met again later in the season in Minneapolis, it was not so close as the Packers blew out the Vikings 31-3.

Favre’s streak of consecutive starts eventually ended late in the season. Rodgers was also injured late in the season when he suffered a concussion, causing him to miss a couple of games which the Packers lost. Their playoff prospects in peril, the Packers had to win a couple of late season games just to get in to the post season, and then had to win all of those games away from Lambeau Field.

With a victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV, the Packers have regained the ultimate prize, brought the Lombardi Trophy back to “Title Town”, and Aaron Rodgers has just as many championship rings as Brett Favre.

~

Like the Pennsylvania Congress of 2005, the National Football League recently snuck something into the playoffs. Of course, the NFL did not raise their own salaries some 34% in the dead of night. No, in my opinion, they did something much worse. They changed a rule that was the very foundation of what put American football on the map over a half-century ago.

What, you ask, has me so perturbed? It is the startling, un-talked-about change in the playoff overtime rule. Apparently I’m the only one who is angry about this, but I will not lay down my tongue in defeat. No, it will wag with even more ferocity!

First, let us examine why “sudden death” overtime put the NFL on the map. It is all due to one game – the 1958 NFL Championship game between the Baltimore Colts and New York Giants. This was one of the first highly televised professional football games and it was a back and forth game between two great teams that went into “sudden death” overtime.

With the game tied at 17 apiece, the Giants got the ball to start overtime, but when the Colts defense held stout, New York was forced to punt the ball back to Baltimore and quarterback Johnny Unitas. Unitas led the Colts on an eighty-yard drive, culminating with touchdown run by Alan Ameche, who crossed the goaline into history.

After this game television networks realized that professional football was a viable commodity that people would watch due to its intense and exciting nature, and most analysts and historian feel the “sudden death” aspect is one of the key components that made this “the greatest game in history”. If it had not gone into sudden death overtime would history have changed?

Since that game in 1958, some of the greatest postseason games have gone to “sudden death” – Miami/Kansas City in 1971, San Diego/Miami in 1981, Denver/Cleveland in 1986, the Rams against the Giants in 1989, Buffalo/Houston in 1992, and Atlanta/Minnesota in 1998. But none of these games has been the final, championship game of the year and it has never happened in a Super Bowl.

If you read last week’s article, you know we’re pretty jazzed about this upcoming Super Bowl between Pittsburgh and Green Bay. It should be a great one, but what if an asinine new rule trips it up? Let us examine what the new overtime rule is:

• Both teams must have the opportunity to possess the ball once during the extra period, unless the team that receives the opening kickoff scores a touchdown on its initial possession, in which case it is the winner.

• If the team that possesses the ball first scores a field goal on its initial possession, the other team shall have the opportunity to possess the ball. If [that team] scores a touchdown on its possession, it is the winner. If the score is tied after [both teams have a] possession, the team next scoring by any method shall be the winner.

• If the score is tied at the end of a 15-minute overtime period, or if [the overtime period's] initial possession has not ended, another overtime period will begin, and play will continue until a score is made, regardless of how many 15-minute periods are necessary.

As you can see, this is not the absolute worst rule in history, but why is it necessary? There is an old saying that goes; “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. The NFL’s overtime rule was perfect the way it was, especially in the playoffs. If your team got the ball first you had to score, or if you didn’t your defense had to stop them. So why change it?

Well, it’s simple – the NFL wants to make things “fair,” and promote offense while eliminating defense. The reason for this rule is due almost entirely to the fact that the New Orleans Saints drove straight down and scored on the opening procession of the 2009 NFC Championship game to eliminate the Minnesota Vikings. Anyone with sense would say that it was up to the Vikings defense to stop the Saints offense and they failed, but not the NFL. Apparently the NFL blames ….the kicker?

The new overtime rule attempts to stop kickers from having the ability to decide overtime games. Now, what I don’t understand, is why the NFL does not simply eliminate the kicking position altogether?  

At least, Colt’s kickerAdam Vinatieri has some common sense. In a recent New York Times Article he said; “Your defense is supposed to keep the other team from scoring. If they do that, you get the ball back anyway.”

If the NFL does not want games decided by kickers why not just say that in overtime all points must come from touchdowns and field goals are not options? Creating a half-hearted overtime rule that eliminates kickers as pivotal players on the first drive only serves to create controversy and confusion.

Imagine if Packer’s quarterback Aaron Rodgers drives eighty yards for a field goal in overtime and then in the ensuing kickoff, Steeler’s kick returner Stefan Logan gets lucky breaks a tackle and scores the game deciding touchdown. Would it really be fair that the Packers offense did vastly more than the Steelers and still lost?

This is, of course, purely hypothetical, but you can imagine the frustration if that happened and then the next day the NFL would move to change the overtime rule again so that kick-offs were only allowed on the 1^st possession of overtime?

It is a disaster waiting to happen.

~

This week, the Tuesday Morning Tailback takes a break from bashing the National Football League to actually observe something positive. The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers, the two most successful franchises in the history of the league, are meeting for the first time to decide the world championship.

So, with a lockup or strike in 2011 looming ever closer and larger, and with the multitude of other self-imposed wounds by the league that this column regularly exposes, we will focus on what very well may be one of the last great events in the storied history of the NFL – Super Bowl XLV on Feburary 6th.

We will concentrate not so much on the current teams, although they are both excellent with top-notch young quarterbacks and two of the best defenses in the league. Instead we will look at the fantastic history of success that each of these franchises accomplished, as well as the incredible fact that, despite all the success that dates back some nine decades, they have never met before in a playoff or championship situation.

For about 35 years now, fans have been told how popular and great are the Dallas Cowboys. It is true, they have earned much of their popularity and accolades through success on the field, but, put in the proper context, they still lag behind a couple of franchises that earned a higher esteem.

Unlike the subjective “America’s Team”, which started as a marketing scheme to promote the Cowboys in the 1970s, Green Bay has truly earned its nickname of “Title Town”, through decades of success. The packers had one championship in the 1920s, four in the 1930s, one in the 1940s, five in the 1960s, and one in the 1990s. They are the only team in NFL history to win three consecutive league championships and they accomplished this twice – 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1965, 1966, 1967. They won the first two Super Bowls and the Vince Lombardi Trophy, perhaps the most coveted symbol in sports, is named after their legendary head coach in the 1960s.

Beyond this incredible success on the field, Green Bay, Wisconsin is the most unique setting in all of professional sports. It ranks 268th in population in the United States, an incredibly small town to be one of only 32 locations where the most popular sport on Earth is played. To put this in perspective, some of the U.S. cities that rank just ahead of Green Bay in population are Frisco, TX, Gresham, OR, High Point, NC, and Erie, PA.

But Green Bay is incredibly important to the NFL’s legacy because it is the last example of where professional football got it’s start. It was not in the larger cities, but those medium-sized – smaller cities and larger “towns” throughout the midwest. In their innagural season of 1919, the Packers played in a league with fellow Wisonsin teams in Oshkosh and Sheboygan as well as teams from Muncie, IN, Canton, OH, and Pottsville, PA. As the league gained popularity through the 1920s and 1930s, these small market teams either relocated to the major cities or disbanded, all except the Packers, who persisted in Green Bay through the decades, and with great success.

They did toy with the big city to an extent, playing multiple games in Milwaukee each season for several decades right up into the 1990s. But since 1995, they have played all of their games in Green Bay and all have sold out each and every one. The team is actually owned by the city of Green Bay as well as thousands of share holders, the only publically owned team in professional sports. You will not hear them be named as a candidate for relocation to Los Angeles, like will of teams in the much larger cities of Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Jacksonville. They are a true institution in Green Bay, WI.

It is true that the success of the Packers is a bit back-loaded, with 11 of their 12 championships occuring by 1967. The team entered a long period of mediocrity through the 1970s and 1980s, missing the playoffs for 19 of 20 seasons until the Brett Favre led ressurgence in the 1990s. Ironically, this is the mirror opposite of the Pittsburgh Steelers story. For just as the Packers went into decline following the Lombardi era, the Steelers went on a meteoric rise.

Chuck Noll became head coach of the Steelers in 1969, and pulled off two of the most incredible feats ever in football, which will probably never be repeated again. First, he drafted a total of nine future Hall of Fame players between 1969 and 1974. Next, he led his team to four Super Bowl victories in the mid-to-late 70s, more than any other coach in the “Super Bowl” era. All of those championships were accomplished with these “home-grown”, drafted players, most of which started and ended their careers as a Pittsburgh Steeler. There was absolutely no big name free agent signing to boost or replenish the team during this incredible run in the 70s. This was also an amazing turn-around, because prior to Noll’s arrival, the Steelers had never won anything.

In 1933, Art Rooney started the NFL franchise as the Pittsburgh Pirates, and would eventually change their name to the Steelers in 1940. The team nearly disbanded twice during World War II, when there was a serious shortage a personnel to play football, but in each case were kept alive by mergering with another franchise, once with the Chicago Cardinals (“Card-Pitt”) and once with their cross-state rivals the Philadelphia Eagles (“The Steagles”). In 1947, the Steelers lost to the Eagles 21-0 in a playoff game. It would be the teams only post-season appearance prior to 1972, when they won their first playoff game due to Franco Harris‘s famous “Immaculate Reception”.

In perhaps the most amazing turnaround of a franchise in sports history, the team that appeared in absolutely no championship games during their first 39 years of existance, has appeared in 15 conference championships during their past 38. Ultimately, the Steelers, who are still owned by the Rooney family, have won six Super Bowls. This includes two during the past five years, following the 2005 and 2008 seasons, and is more than any other team. They hope to up that record by making Super Bowl XLV their seventh.

Aside from their great traditions, another thing that can be said or both the Steelers and Packers is their similarities on other fronts. Both are named after prominent blue-collar industries in their respective region, in lieu of some grand, artificial mascot like the Benglas, Bears, Rams, and Redskins. Both having extremely loyal fans that “travel well”, occupying large portions of normally partisan stadiums. And both have maintained the same basic look that their teams donned during their glory years, foregoing the “trendy” new looks adopted by teams such as New England, Denver, and Seattle. So there is some higher sense of integrity with this contest, and that’s not to mention the current teams, which have proven they are the two best by their play on the field late in the season and through the playoffs.

This Super Bowl matchup did very nearly happen on two occasions in the 1990s. In 1995, the Steelers made it to Super Bowl XXX while the Packers barely lost the NFC Championship to Dallas. Two years later, the Packers went to the big game while Pittsburgh was upset at home by the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship (due mainly to the support of two rabid Bronco fans in the upper deck of the northwest end zone).

So this week we congratulate the NFL on this historic Super Bowl, between two great teams from the heart of America, America’s team with the most championships all time against America’s team with the most Super Bowl victories. Ironically, this game takes place at the home field of the marketed “America’s Team” in Dallas. We sincerely hope the game lives up to its moment and the better wins through some memorable accomplishment on the field.

Next Tuesday we will return to bashing the NFL when we look at the asinine new playoff overtime rule – one of the potential new pit falls that can serve to ruin this historic Super Bowl.

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The incredible numbers are in! More people watched the Divisional Playoff game between the New York Jets and the New England Patriots this past Sunday than the final games of the last NBA Finals and World Series combined! Further, in the case of the NBA, it was a do-or-die Game #7 between two “marquee” teams and both the NBA and MLB games were in primetime. The Jets-Patriots game was merely a conference semi-final (round of 8), played on a Sunday afternoon at 4:30pm.

This may illustrate more than anything else how the NFL has become, without a shred of doubt, the premiere passtime for American sports fans. That being said, the primary mission of Tuesday Morning Tailback is to illustrate how the NFL has begun its self-imposed decline that will ultimately destroy the greatest game in the history of mankind. Each week we will gently point out examples of some of the absurd policies and measures that are being imposed to “improve” the game, but are slowly chipping away at the solid foundation that built the NFL to its position of prominence that it enjoys today. Years from now, after the ultimate fall, many will point out these same reasons for the league’s demise in a post-modem. We aim to do it, i real time, while it is happening.

The National Football League, now the belle of the ball, is fast becoming a bloated, aging whore. As with most things that become popular it has grown to proportions that can only be sustained by large amounts of people at many different levels.

Unfortunately, the NFL has one person who supersedes the rest and hands down policy, Commissioner Roger Goodell, who believes that, as the most popular sport in America, the NFL has decided it has “a responsibility” to be the best – politically. So each year the league jumps on one or several new social “bandwagons” and this season the agenda has been about player safety.

“What could be so bad about safety?” one may ask. Well, this is the NFL. It is a violent, hard-hitting sport and most die-hard fans like it that way. Unfortunately, injuries have always been part of the game. Earlier this season, Brett Favre was forced to sit out a game due to an injury, breaking an incredible streak of 297 consecutive starts dating back to 1992. But it is so incredible precisely because so many quarterbacks (as well as other players) get injured. Just looking back at the last generation of great quarterbacks – Joe Montana, John Elway, Dan Marino – all pretty hardy and consistant, but yet all suffered injuries that caused them to miss a substantial part of a season (or more).

When you look at footage from the 1960s, probably the NFL’s most important decade in gaining mainstream popularity, you see some of the most brutal hits ever by players like Ray Nitchke, Dick Butkus, Chuck Bednarik, and Deacon Jones – most of which would bring a penalty, fine, and/or suspension today. These highlights have been played in an endless loop in some of the most famous NFL Films programs, instrumental in catching and keeping fans of the game. Today, we are told, this violence is not tolerable.

In Goodell’s defense, he is not the first to put restrictions on the “violence”. In fact, many of the type of hits we see from the 60s were already outlawed by the 70s, but these seem like the most common sense – the “clothes line”, the “face mask”, etc. Goodell’s predecessor, Paul Tagliabue, really started this trend towards absurdity about 15-20 years ago when he classified quarterbacks as a special “protected class”, with special rules and penalties (this was at the prodding of team owners, solely because they had so much money tied up in quarterbacks as compared to regular “grunts”).

Goodell is solely responsible for the absurd provisions introduced during the 2010 season – a confusing mish-mash of policies and “rules” against “violent” hits that are arbitrary and subjective. It started with helmet-to helmet, but has drastically devolved into all kinds of crazy possibilities that really boil down to “hitting too hard”. It has also altered the competiveness and fairness of the game itself.

For example, in a game in December Eagle‘s quarterback Michael Vick scrambled right towards the sideline, being pursued by a linebacker. When Vick got near the sideline, he slowed up and the linebacker, not wanting a penalty, slowed up as well. But Vick, an incredible athlete, suddenly turned up field, tight-roping along the sideline for an extra 10-12 yards. Later in the same quarter, with a very similar situation, Vick was pushed hard to assure he went out-of-bounds but the referee though the push was a bit “too hard”, so the defender was penalized 15 yards for a personal foul. How is this fair?

So, throughout 2010, a large group of hard hitting players were slapped with repeated fines. Anyone who has ever tackled someone knows that the act is more of a reaction then a thought out process. Imagine being a defender, the ball is snapped players are running everywhere and you spot the running back with the ball. Does the NFL really think that the defender thinks to himself, “I’m going to intentionally hit this guy harder than usual?” Not to mention the amount of physics that goes into every hit.

Now, at what point do the people trying so desperately to protect NFL players realize that in the NFL the goal is to tackle the opposition. This isn’t some gentlemanly sport like golf or baseball. This is the gridiron! And the reason why football has far surpassed baseball as the national passtime is precisely because fans love the hard-hitting nature of the game. Comedian George Carlin recognized this decades ago, when he did his famous skit about football vs baseball. Check out that classic skit here.

There is also another integral part of the game that is being destroyed here. NFL teams strategize to hit players who can be rattled. For instance, in Super Bowl XXV, the Buffalo Bills came in with one of the greatest offenses in history, led by quarterback Jim Kelly and a bunch of talented receivers. The Bills came in averaging over 40 points per game in the palyoffs and appeared to be truly unstoppable. Defensive Coordinator Bill Belichick of the New York Giants decided that his best strategy was to not just try to defend the Bill’s receivers, but to wear them down physically. He told his defenders backs to hit the receivers as hard as they can, on every play and the result is history. The Giants ultimately won the Supoer Bowl 20-19, in what was praised as one of the most ingenius strategies in history. The irony here is, if this strategy was employed today, the Giants would have probably gotten several “personal foul” penalties that would have tipped the balance Buffalo’s way.

These new absurd policies on hitting are just one example of many why there will be a coming demise of this sport. On the way to the summit, the NFL has forgotten the essence and history of the sport they represent. Although we can fully expect it to keep rising in popularity in the near future (it is still very good at marketing), we believe the seeds of its own demise are being widely sown today.

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According to a local geologic agency, when Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch broke eight or nine tackles on the way to scoring what would ultimately be the game winning touchdown run, the crowd noise literally registered on the Richter scale.

Lynch is a fourth year player, who was given up on midway through the season by his original team, the Buffalo Bills, after he had some injury and legal problems. Likewise, the Seahawks were given no chance against the defending champion New Orleans Saints, even though they were at home for this Wildcard playoff game. This was because the Seahawks entered the playoffs with a losing record, 7 winsm 9 losses – the first team in history to do so – while the Saints finished at 11-5.

Yet the game was played in Seattle because the Seahwks won their division (NFC West) while the Saints did not win theirs (NFC South), coming in second to the 13-3 Atlanta Falcons. Two teams with better records than Seatlle, the New York Giants and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers bothe 10-6, did not make the playoffs because they failed to win their divisions and there was no wildcard slots open. But those are the rules, and the beauty of the NFL playoffs is that you have to win every game – there are no gimmes, just byes in the wildcard round for the two top teams. In all twelve teams make the playoffs, and eleven are eliminated by losing, and the Saints lost.

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Although I’ve not yet seen any this year, I have always enjoyed the commercials on NFL Network that flash back to August and show all these die hard fans that make these predictions on how good their particular team will fare in the upcoming season. They are usually hilarious and absurd, albeit ficticious and staged, which is a bit ironic considering there’s always enough actual footage of pundits and experts making equally absurd forecasts.

Coming into the 2010 season, you would have typically heard proclamations such as the following:

“The Cowboys could become the first team to play the Super Bowl on their home field”

“With Roethlisberger suspended for the first four games, the Pittsburgh Steelers are in serious trouble”

“There’s no serious competition for the AFC West, San Diego is just too talented”

“Now that Donovan McNabb has been traded to Washington, the Eagles are Kevin Kolb’s team now”

“This will be a rebuilding year for Bill Belichick and the Patriots”

“With the addition of T.O., the Benglas will be even better than they were last year when they swept the AFC North.”

“One thing we do know is Brett Favre and the Vikings will be there in the end, competing for the NFC crown”

Also, there was a near consensus that the San Francisco 49ers would rise to the top of the NFC West, that the Houston Texans would finally break through and become a playoff team and that the St. Louis Rams would be one of the worst teams this season.

On the flip side, no one predicted the vast improvement of the afore-mentioned Rams, nor the Raiders or Lions and, most dramatically, the Buccaneers, Chiefs, and Falcons. No one predicted the drastic fall of the Cardinals and Broncos (full disclosure – I DID predict Denver to come in last in their division, but that was mostly because I foresaw the rise of Oakland and Kansas City).

To be fair, kudos to the experts who all pretty much concluded that the Cleveland Browns would once again suck.

With the playoff teams all in place, here’s a prediction of my own of how it will turn out in the end –

“A very good team will make the Super Bowl and will be defeated by an even better team and five minutes after the trophy is lifted, the experts and pundits will recalibrate their narrative to tell us why they saw it coming all along”

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New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning has long been criticized for lacking the “fire” needed of a leader who wants to motivate and inspire his teammates. Eli’s demeanor appears calm and business-like no matter the situation.

Perhaps this was never more evident than following last week’s collapse when, in a game against the Philadelphia Eagles to determine first place in the division, the Giants gave up 28 points in the final 7 minutes to lose a big lead and the game. Clad in business attire after the game, Eli took the podium for the normal press conference in spite of the fact that only one junior reporter had bothered to show up. This was because, despite his fine talent, Eli is not the greatest quarterback the world has ever seen. That honor belongs to the quarterback in the other locker room – where those absent reporters, no doubt, were on that day – Michael Vick.

After spending nearly two years in prison for abusing, torturing, and killing fighter dogs, Vick signed with the Eagles in 2009 as a third string quarterback behind Donovan McNabb and Kevin Kolb. After McNabb was traded to Washington in the offseason, Kolb was named starter for 2010, but after an injury early in the season, Vick got has chance and has played tremendously. After just a handful of starts, he was being lauded as the league’s M.V.P. and, after his part in the incredible comeback last week against Eli’s Giants, Vick is being called “a rare talent like we have never seen”. No quarterback has been so highly praised and hyped after playing about a half of a season since Tony Romo in 2006.

After taking over for Drew Bledsoe as quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys part way through that season, Romo was a surprise pick for the Pro Bowl that very season. Finally, “America’s team” had their quarterback of the future and would be back, in no time, to the Super Bowl glory of their heyday. It was sure to happen that very next year, in 2007, when the Cowboys finished 13-3 and had home field throughout the playoffs.

But in the very first playoof game that year, Dallas was knocked off by the New York Giants and Eli Manning, who had long been criticized for lacking the “fire” needed of a leader to motivate and inspire his teammates, but who went on to claim the crown for his team that year.

The previous year (2006), Eli’s older brother Peyton Manning, won his own Super Bowl with the Indianapolis Colts after that team had been written off late in the year as not being “serious contenders” for a championship. According to the experts, the team to beat going into the 2006 playoffs was the San Diego Chargers.

The Chargers had made a couple of “brilliant” moves in the years leading up to 2006. During the 2004 draft they traded their #1 pick, Eli Manning, who would later be criticized for lacking the “fire” needed of a leader to motivate and inspire his teammates, for the Giant’s #1 draft pick, Phillip Rivers. Then, following the 2005 season, the Chargers elected to go with Rivers over then-starter Drew Brees, who was traded to the New Orleans Saints.

Brees and the Saints would go on to win their own Super Bowl in 2009, while Rivers and the Chargers would be hyped as a “Super Bowl contender” for each of the years post-Brees, but would promptly lose in the AFC playoffs each season. Earlier this season (2010), Rivers was being touted (like Vick) as an M.V.P. candidate due to his “rare talent” and any other superlative that the fawning press could bestow upon him. But as the Chargers floundered with a mediocre record and got eliminated from the playoffs this week following a loss to the lowly Cincinnati Bengals, it appears that the air may finally be being released from the Rivers hype-bubble. And then last night, prior to the Monday Night game, I saw that adolation has now found a new home.

Matt Ryan, affectionately known as “Matty Ice”, has been a very good quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons since they drafted him 2008 (ironically, because they were left without a quarterback when former-Falcon Vick went to prison). His nickname comes from his cool demeanor, especially when the game is on the line, and despite being called “ice”, no one claims he lacks the “fire” needed to motivate and inspire his teammates.

In fact, in the team’s 45-year history, Atlanta had never put together three consecutive winning seasons until Ryan arrived and did just that in his first three years with this year being the best of them all (12-3 with a game remaining). So there is no doubt, Ryan is good and all indicators point to a bright future.

But then the ESPN analysts came to town and bestowed upon Ryan the new deity-among-quarterbacks label. All I can think of is poor, poor Phillip! It’s like in that Eagle’s song (by the band, not the team that Michael Vick currently plays on) –

they will never forget you ’til somebody new comes around…

Now Matt Ryan can do no wrong! And hype! hype! hype! hype! hype! -all of this before an important divisional matchup against the defending world champion New Orleans Saints and their suddenly overlooked quarterback Drew Brees. You just knew the Saints were going to somehow go to Atlanta and win this game – and they did.

It’s fine to get excited about talented quarterbacks like Vick, Romo, Rivers, and Ryan, but a little perspective is in order. None of these guys have done it yet – reached the pinnacle, won a Super Bowl. Not one!

Brees and the two Manning brothers (even the one who has long been criticized for lacking the “fire” needed to motivate and inspire his teammates) have reached that pinnacle. And so has the true M.V.P. of this year, Tom Brady.

In fact, Brady has won as many Super Bowls as Brees and the Mannings combined – three. The first of these coming in 2001, when Brady replaced an injured Drew Bledsoe as starting quarterback for the New England Patriots (years before Bledsoe would again be replaced, by Romo, in Dallas). Ironically, Bledsoe himself was once one of those over-hyped talents back in the 1990s, but was never able to win his own Super Bowl as a starter.

On the flip side, even after that first upset victory, Brady was considered a mere “manager” of a team with deep talent. It wasn’t until he and the Patriots won a couple more (in 2003 and 2004) that Brady started to be considered as “one of the greats”.

Although Brady and New England have not won a Super Bowl since the 2004 season, he has accomplished some remarkable feats in the years since. This season, he broke the all-time record for pass attempts without throwing an interception. To put this in perspective, Brady has not thrown an interception since October 17th – 10 full games ago – while Rivers, Brees, and the Manning brothers have combined for 10 interceptions in the past 2 days. But this is not the only record Brady holds.

During the incredible 2007 season, Tom Brady threw an NFL record 50 touchdown passes as the Patriots became the first team to win every one of their games since the league went to a 16-game schedule in 1978. New England won both their AFC playoff games to bring their record to 18-0 and a birth in the Super Bowl, where they would make history if they won, as the leagues first ever 19-0 team (in fact, they trade-marked the term “19 and 0″ for a future book and MSNBC’s Morning Joe show set up in Boston to join the imminent celebration the next day).

But someone forgot to tell the Patriot’s opponents in that Super Bowl, the New York Giants, who spoiled the perfect season by defeating New England and Tom Brady, thus scrapping the publishing of “19 and 0″ and making the Morning Joe show extremely lame that Monday.

The Giants were led by quarterback Eli Manning, who had long been criticized for lacking the “fire” needed of a leader to motivate and inspire his teammates.

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Turn off your televisions, my fellow football fanatics, for there is no longer any suspense involved in the frenzy for playoff positioning that usually consumes us in December. The experts have spoken and the Eagles are going to the Super Bowl. There is no longer any doubt, the debate is over.

Obviously, the miraculous “Miracle at the New Meadowlands” this past sunday, where the Philadelphia Eagles rallied from 21 points down to win against the New York Giants in a showdown for first place, is a tremendous boost for the team as they head towards the end of the season. And the Eagles do deserve their rightful kudos for hanging in there, taking advantage of the right opportunities, and executing at the most crucial times. But how exactly does this diminish the Falcons, Saints, Bears, and yes, even these Giants, from being any less competitive in the NFC playoffs come January?

Further, in the zest to praise the Eagles and, most especially, Michael Vick, it seems like the “experts” overlooked the culpability of the Giants in making crucial mistakes that gave the Philly the opportunities they needed to comeback and win – which they never would have done without the G-men’s assistance. It takes a very special combination of carelessness and ineptitude to blow such a large lead with so little time. Sure, a win is a win is a win, but let’s not forget that, in this most crucial of contests, the Giants kicked the Eagles’ asses up and down the field for 7/8ths of the game.

Which brings us to the total irony of this moment. It was exactly one year ago, as the 2009 season wound down, the Eagles were also being lauded as “the class of the NFC”, as they had the inside track to the division title and the #2 seed due to their five game winning streak and the late season struggles by New Orleans and Minnesota (the two teams that actually did go to the NFC Championship).

And what happened to the Eagles? They got crushed by Dallas two weeks in a row – the first in the regular season finale, the second in a playoff game – and Eagles fans once again sat through a long, cold winter without a championship (the team has not won one since 1960 – well before the first Super Bowl, 50 solid years ago).

But surely this year is different. So turn off your TV’s, folks until you tune in for the coronation on February 6th.

Fly, Eagles, Fly!

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