Friday, January 16, 2015

The NFL's Final Four Is Sunday

If you are not aware and do not follow football, this post is not for you. If you are a football fan and watched Ohio State beat up on Oregon Monday night for the NCAA first-ever, bona fide playoff National Championship, this Sunday you will find the two teams who will be making the trip to the Super Bowl.

This weekend we move up a level to the NFL and the really huge money and egos. It will be interesting to see what controversies come this weekend because certainly there will be one or more game changing calls that will determine somebody getting more millions of dollars then somebody else.

The first game between the Green Bay Packers and last year's winner, Seattle Seahawks starts at 2 PM central time. That is for the National Conference Championship. The winner of that game will play the winner of the 5 PM game, which finds the Indianapolis Colts take on the New England Patriots.

I guess they had to move the times back an hour for the beginning of each game to get in an extra hour of analysis and commercials before the games start. I am sure there will be several human interest stories and heartwarming commercials sprinkled in between so many people telling us what is going to happen in each game. Call me cynical, but I can do without all of the pregame analysis and prognostications.

The winners on Sunday will win the right to represent their conference in Super Bowl XLIX. That is 49 for you non-Greek number experts. Personally, I liked Super Bowl XL.

They will get their respective conference championship trophies after their win on Sunday; but the real prize is the Lombardi Trophy which is named after the famed Green Bay and Washington coach, Vince Lombardi pictured here:

It is the ultimate symbol of superiority in America's classic example of testosterone run amok.

For you people who do not like football because of the injuries and the toll it takes on its players, I completely understand your perspective and find it offensive. However, despite an instant in time of football changing my life forever, I still love to watch good football games on any level.

It disgusts me every time I see a player get hurt. Unfortunately, it happens far too often and I am not going to make this post a commentary on my feelings of how dangerous the game is.

The thing that does bother me about football and all professional sports is the gambling that goes on with the television sports shows. I understand a lot of money changes hands legally and illegally in Nevada and New Jersey. I am not naïve enough to think it does not go on illegally around the country, but it does disgust me how gambling is promoted on such a wide basis via television and social media. 

With all that being said, my favorites for this Sunday are Seattle over Green Bay and New England over Indianapolis. I have my reasons, and that is a much longer explanation to add to this already long post. Suffice it to say I already have my Super Bowl favorite picked out as well.

As always, I look forward to your comments.

Later,

Mike

1 comment:

Colleen said...

Will agree with your assessment completely Michael!!
Just hoping for good clean injury free game for all those warriors out on the turf!