4401

4402

We can talk about Mass Effect 2, if you’d rather.

4403

Liara can play Tight End for me anytime.

4404

Why do rivalries matter?

Because as a Bears fan I had an interesting game to watch yesterday. Bears are in, sealed, and done – #2 seed, win or lose. Might as well sit the first string and tank the game, right?

Well, no. Because the last game is against the Packers. The Packers, dammit, and not only do the Bears get the week 17 chance to beat them and sweep the division, but doing so will also keep them from the playoffs, and how sweet would that taste?

Granted, it didn’t happen, but there was an interesting, meaningful game to watch because of division scheduling. DERP DERP HI I’M A MOUTH BREATHER. If the Bears had played, oh, I dunno… Jacksonville… would it have been worth watching? Probably not.

But, I see that we’ve already backtracked on allowing division scheduling. Still holding onto the straight seeding idea, because it’s “more fair”? Once you allow division scheduling, I’d argue that no, it’s not.

The NFC South is the only division with three teams that scored 10 wins this year. Coincidentally, all three teams not only had the horrible Panthers to beat up on twice… but the NFC Souths’ 2010 intraconference rival division was the West – every single one of those teams got to beat up on each of the shit-show NFC West teams, as well.

Would it be fair, under a straight “six best” seeding this way, that New Orleans could get in with 11-5 on a soft, soft schedule and eliminate one of the 10-6 teams who played non-powerdpuff rotation divisions (Green Bay, who played the NFC East and AFC East, and New York, who played the NFC North and AFC South)?

Yeah, I suspect not.

If you’re going to make the concession to keep division play alive a straight-seed tournament is no more fair than division winners plus two wildcards – and arguably more unfair.

Honestly, I’d like to see all this frothing reactionary hatred of a system that, on the whole, works pretty well, even if it is as occasionally prone to the whims of schedule and record as any other ranking system where you don’t have repeated roundrobin play, directed at something more worth of hatred, like the NFL’s fucking retarded overtime rules.

For years I’ve been desperately longing for the first Super Bowl to be decided by a coin toss. That day there will be blood in the streets.

(This year’s post-season rule changes are a step in the right direction, but only that)

4405

I’m actually pretty ticked off that KC is in the playoffs. If the Raiders didn’t need the first six weeks of the season to get their shit together (in which they played their easy games) they could’ve took it. As it was, their post bye week schedule was brutal. I think Oakland is definitely better than Kansas City and I’m positive that Kansas City is going nowhere in the playoffs. Ravens are going to beat them down just as hard as New Orleans will to the Seahawks.

And whoever did the offensive playcalling for the Rams in Week 17 should be fired.

4406

Yeah. Forget the Seahawks; if you want to talk about the division mechanism breaking down, look at what the Raiders had to put up with.

Not fair.

4407

4408

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m not even a Raiders fan, nor am I particularly concerned with the outcome. Actually, I think Seattle making it is awesome. If they were to somehow magically defeat the Saints, it would be even more awesome.

4409

So which game gets decided by the new overtime rules this postseason? Who is the first team to get screwed/helped?

4410

You know how it’s going to happen:

Patriots hosting the Ravens, divisional round. Tight game goes into overtime. Pats win the toss, Brady drives them down, and they get a “would have been a win under the old system” field goal. But in the interest of fairness, the Ravens now get a shot and Flacco hits Housh for a TD and the win.

;-)

4411

I don’t get why this is coming out now, but apparently Favre is being sued by two former massage therapists who claim they were fired by the Jets after they complained about Favre hitting on them in person and via text and cel phone messages while he was in New York.

http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/22475988/26829682

4412

I’m A-OK with a team losing that way in the interest of fairness. You shouldn’t have a distinct advantage in a playoff game based on the results of a coin flip.

4413

Cash money.

4414

Don’t forget, the Patriots finished with an 11-5 record in 2008, and didn’t make the playoffs. But you know who did? The 8-8 San Diego Chargers, who won their own division.

But that wouldn’t have happened if the Pats had just managed to figure out the Wildcat in Week 3.

4415

And if they hadn’t lost Brady to a knee injury in week 1.

4416

Well, that, too. But Cassel played admirably in his absence.

Fuck you, Bernie Pollard.

4417

Uhh, what?!

4418

Rams fans, close your eyes:

4419

Ha, that was the moment in the game when I decided I’d seen everything I needed to see.

4420

So the Raiders fire Cable while giving SF permission to talk with Hue Jackson. Al Davis, the idiocy that keeps on giving. He was too cheap to pay Cable his $2.5M, but doesn’t mind paying 1st round draft picks millions of dollars to do absolutely nothing but fuck up the team.